By the time the celebration for completing the voice recording of 'Fate/Zero' broke up, it was already past seven in the evening.
The weather was gradually slipping into the depths of winter. At this hour, the sky would normally still have been painted with the colors of dusk, but now it was already shrouded in darkness. The bustling streets, awash with colorful lights, were brightly illuminated beneath the streetlamps.
The moment Kamiyā Yuu stepped outside, he felt the cold wind sweep across his body. The suit jacket he was wearing was nowhere near enough to retain his body heat in weather like this.
December, early winter.
Even in a metropolis like Tokyo, the chill was already clearly noticeable. In less than half a month, the entire city would probably enter winter proper.
Japan's geographical location gave it distinctly defined seasons, allowing people to experience the characteristics of spring, summer, autumn, and winter every year. After winter arrived, however, its proximity to the sea meant that cold air over the land was dispersed by winds blowing in from the ocean. Temperatures in most regions therefore remained relatively mild during winter.
That was especially true for a metropolis like Tokyo. With its dense population and urban heat-island effect, even snowfall became relatively uncommon in winter.
Kamiyā Yuu had drunk several cups of sake at the party. Once his body adjusted to the outdoor temperature, it wasn't long before the warmth from the alcohol began spreading through him again.
He had expected to drink at the celebration, so he hadn't driven there. He found the nearest subway station, took the train back to the neighborhood where Yosuganosora Animation Studio was located, and picked up several portions of hot food along the way.
Only a few floors of Yosuganosora's office building still had their lights on.
Production on 'Fate/Zero' was essentially complete. These few brief days of leisure were intended to give the employees, who had barely been able to catch their breath throughout the year, some time to rest.
Even so, their working conditions and treatment were still far better than those at most other animation studios.
The working environment in Japan's animation industry was becoming increasingly grim. Only employees capable of enduring the harsh conditions qualified to truly establish themselves in the industry.
Japan was a powerhouse of animation. Despite the astonishing attrition rate, an endless stream of fresh blood continued entering the industry while embracing their "dreams."
Kamiyā Yuu arrived on the floor occupied by the 3D Production Department and knocked on the wooden door of the director's office.
"Yes~ Yes, I'm here. The door isn't locked, so come in yourself."
Yūki Chinatsu's lazy response came from inside.
Kamiyā Yuu pushed open the door and, sure enough, found Kamiyā Sora and Yūki Chinatsu nestled beneath the kotatsu.
Yūki Chinatsu was happily peeling a mandarin orange, meticulously picking away even the white pith clinging to the fruit.
Kamiyā Sora was writing on her laptop, her delicate and refined face filled with concentration. Her slender, petite figure was still dressed in the standard black business suit she wore for work. The sight of her using the laptop actually gave her something of the capable air of a professional woman.
"Welcome back. How did the voice recording go?"
Yūki Chinatsu didn't even raise her head, focusing entirely on the mandarin in her hands.
Kamiyā Yuu collected the two empty bento boxes from the table and threw them into the trash outside before answering, "We just finished the Sound Department's celebration party. Also, eating the white pith together with the mandarin is good for you."
"There was a celebration party? Why didn't you invite me?"
Yūki Chinatsu's eyes lit up at the mention of a party. Then she put down the mandarin in disappointment and grumbled, "I don't like bitter things. They're no fun at all. Sora and I could only eat bentos reheated in the microwave while Yuu got to go to a celebration feast by himself. That's so unfair."
Both amused and exasperated, Kamiyā Yuu placed a container of hot food on the kotatsu and lightly knocked Yūki Chinatsu on the head.
"You're not even part of the Sound Department. Why would you go join their celebration? I brought you some takoyaki. And these are two bottles of beer."
"Only two bottles? What a waste."
Yūki Chinatsu's round eyes immediately gleamed like those of a predator. With lightning speed, she snatched the bag containing the beer and opened it.
Because of company rules established by Morishita Aoi, alcohol wasn't normally permitted in the office, nor were alcoholic drinks stocked there.
Yūki Chinatsu had secretly hidden several bottles before, but after being discovered and subjected to certain undisclosed punishments by Morishita Aoi, she hadn't dared try hiding beer again.
"You think I brought all this just for you? Don't eat Sora's share too. Besides, didn't you just finish a bento? Do you really have that much room left?"
Kamiyā Yuu suspiciously stared at her flat stomach, unable to understand how such a petite body could contain so much food.
"It's different when there's beer. Beer and takoyaki are a perfect combination. They go into a separate stomach, so I can eat as much as I want. What about that one?"
Still unwilling to give up, Yūki Chinatsu pointed at the other takeout container Kamiyā Yuu had set aside.
Kamiyā Yuu hurriedly guarded that box of takoyaki and pointed upstairs.
"Aoi is still working. I'll take this to her later."
"Uh... fine."
Kamiyā Sora finally finished what she had been writing on her laptop and closed the program. She looked at him with her usual calm elegance and nodded.
"Yuu, good work."
"You're still not finished?"
Kamiyā Yuu walked over to her. With Yūki Chinatsu sitting right beside them, he didn't do anything excessive and merely stroked Sora's hair as he asked.
Kamiyā Sora shook her head.
"There are still two volumes left. I probably won't finish until January next year."
Besides completing her regular work, Kamiyā Sora had long since begun writing a novel of her own. Her original intention had been to create something Kamiyā Yuu could adapt into an anime.
Kamiyā Yuu had naturally read the novel.
Its overall plot couldn't be considered particularly outstanding. It depicted a romance between a nobleman and a commoner woman during the Victorian era. However, both the simple illustrations and the prose exuded a strong British cultural atmosphere, portraying the social background and cultural trends of the Victorian era with considerable depth.
If adapted into an anime, it would undoubtedly become a distinctive classic.
Whether audiences would actually like it was another matter.
Kamiyā Yuu's assessment of Kamiyā Sora's novel had been:
"It's extremely well suited to becoming one of those British dramas produced by the BBC. Adapting it into anime would place very demanding requirements on the animation studio, and the subject matter doesn't conform to the current mainstream of anime."
Still, Kamiyā Sora's novel reminded Kamiyā Yuu of a manga artist he rather liked—Kaoru Mori, a Japanese female manga artist whose representative works included 'Emma: A Victorian Romance', 'A Bride's Story', and 'Shirley'.
The manga 'Emma: A Victorian Romance' had received an Excellence Award in the Manga Division of the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival and had also been adapted into an anime.
Although Kamiyā Yuu preferred the manga 'Shirley', 'Emma: A Victorian Romance' was also one of the few niche anime he liked. Its story was essentially a British romance drama in the vein of 'Pride and Prejudice', and even the cultural background was highly similar.
However, Kaoru Mori's manga style was extraordinarily meticulous. Her characterization was profound, and she possessed considerable knowledge of Victorian culture, making the manga particularly fascinating.
After its anime adaptation lost the advantage provided by the original art style, some of the story changes made by the anime also seemed extremely unwise. Viewers who weren't already fond of this kind of subject matter would probably find it quite disappointing.
Another classic manga, 'A Bride's Story', told a story with a cultural background completely different from that of 'Emma: A Victorian Romance'.
While 'Emma: A Victorian Romance' was set in Victorian Britain, 'A Bride's Story' was set among nomadic peoples. Since Kamiyā Yuu wasn't particularly interested in that kind of setting, he hadn't researched the work in depth.
Sensing Kamiyā Yuu's gaze, Kamiyā Sora shifted aside and made room for him beneath the kotatsu.
"Yuu, want to come in? It's really warm."
Kamiyā Yuu shook his head and picked up the other container of hot food, gesturing with it.
"I'll take this up to Aoi first. We can head home together afterward."
"Eh... that fast? You could stay with me a little longer."
Yūki Chinatsu's cheeks bulged with takoyaki as she spoke indistinctly without even swallowing first.
Fortunately, Kamiyā Yuu had spent some time walking after returning to the company, so the takoyaki had cooled somewhat.
Otherwise, eating them like that really could have burned her. Similar to Chinese soup dumplings, takoyaki could feel merely warm on the outside while remaining scalding hot inside. Someone without experience could easily burn their tongue.
Kamiyā Sora gently nodded to him, indicating that she wasn't in any particular hurry to leave either.
"Fine. When I come back, I'll play some games with you two."
Kamiyā Yuu smiled as he answered, then left the office and took the elevator to an upper floor.
Only the corridor lights were on in the Production Department's spacious communal office.
The entire room was dim and silent.
As Kamiyā Yuu passed through, the only sound he could hear was his own footsteps. Looking around at the darkness, he felt as though something might leap out from beneath one of the invisible desks at any moment.
He simply turned on all the office lights.
Knock, knock.
Kamiyā Yuu knocked on the door.
After waiting a moment, he heard a click as the wooden office door opened.
Morishita Aoi stood behind it.
When she saw Kamiyā Yuu outside, her somewhat weary expression immediately softened.
"I knew it. If the Production Management Department still had its lights on this late, I couldn't imagine anyone other than you working overtime."
Kamiyā Yuu walked inside and placed the hot food on her desk.
Turning around and seeing Morishita Aoi's slender figure in her uniform suit, he couldn't resist wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her soft lips.
"Mmm~"
Morishita Aoi struggled symbolically for a moment before yielding.
No one would have imagined that the serious and composed career woman now wore such a shy, contented blush.
Her arms circled Kamiyā Yuu's neck as she responded somewhat awkwardly.
A long while later, when their lips finally parted, she brushed aside the neck-length hair that had fallen forward and softly asked, "What about you, Yuu? Why haven't you gone home this late? And... is that alcohol I smell?"
"The Sound Department had its celebration. We finished recording Episode Twenty-Six, so as the anime's director, I couldn't exactly skip it."
Kamiyā Yuu affectionately pinched the tip of her nose.
"'Fate/Zero' is finished now. Being able to complete it on schedule is largely thanks to all the effort you've put in recently."
He released Morishita Aoi's waist and walked over to the desk. Glancing curiously through the documents she had been organizing, he asked, "Are these all the new employees for Yuu no Sora?"
Morishita Aoi sat down and nodded.
"Mm. I'll finish organizing them today, so I can give them to you for review tomorrow. There's also this personnel transfer list. We should be able to complete all the staffing transfers required to establish Yuu no Sora sometime this month."
Kamiyā Yuu looked at the large stack of documents on the desk.
Every one of them represented Morishita Aoi's hard work over this period—the results of her staying late into the night to establish their subsidiary animation studio, Yuu no Sora.
He couldn't help remembering his first days at Kyoni Animation Co., Ltd. and his impression of Morishita Aoi as his "cold beauty superior."
Back then, like all the other employees, he had regarded Morishita Aoi as a stern, aloof ice queen. He admired her competence in the workplace without harboring the slightest inappropriate thought toward her.
What had impressed him most at the time was her firm principle of never working overtime, despite being in an animation industry where overtime was more commonplace than eating and drinking.
Ever since joining Yosuganosora Animation Studio, however, that principle had been broken so many times that even Kamiyā Yuu had lost count.
Seeing that the desk was completely bare apart from work documents, Kamiyā Yuu frowned.
"Aoi, don't tell me you haven't eaten dinner yet?"
Given what he knew about Morishita Aoi, that was genuinely the most likely possibility.
Morishita Aoi paused before gently nodding.
"Mm. I wanted to finish this first and eat afterward."
Kamiyā Yuu picked up the documents on her desk and began looking through them.
"But there are still plenty of files left. Even if you work until late at night, you might not finish them all. Leave these until tomorrow."
Hearing the concern in his voice, Morishita Aoi unexpectedly covered her lips and giggled.
"I understand. That's the dinner you brought me, isn't it? Your timing was perfect."
Kamiyā Yuu opened the box of takoyaki and handed her a toothpick, lightly scolding her in a concerned tone.
"There's no urgent deadline for establishing Yuu no Sora. Even though I keep telling you that, you still regularly work overtime because of it. And I wasn't joking at all about what I just said."
"Ah."
Morishita Aoi slightly parted her lips toward Kamiyā Yuu, looking adorably like a baby bird waiting to be fed.
When the normally mature and serious Morishita Aoi suddenly acted cute, even Kamiyā Yuu found it difficult to resist.
He obediently picked up a takoyaki and placed it into her mouth, abandoning the previous subject altogether.
"Mmm~ Mmm~"
Morishita Aoi covered her mouth with one hand. After finishing the takoyaki, she gave Kamiyā Yuu a tender smile.
"Thank you. It's delicious."
After finishing all the takoyaki, she stood up, wrapped her arms around Kamiyā Yuu's neck, and took the initiative to kiss him.
When they separated, a glistening strand of saliva briefly stretched between them.
"I feel a little thirsty. For some reason, I suddenly want a drink."
Morishita Aoi mischievously stuck out her tongue. Her face was flushed, with the faintest hint of intoxication.
After saying that, she lowered her head, no longer daring to meet Kamiyā Yuu's eyes.
Kamiyā Yuu rested his forehead against hers and held her cool hand.
"Come downstairs with me. Yūki Chinatsu is probably going to keep making a racket in her office for a while anyway. It'll be livelier with more people. When Sora and I leave later, we can take you home along the way."
"You can't drive after drinking."
"I only had a few cups, and most of the alcohol has already worn off."
"No."
Morishita Aoi decisively tapped Kamiyā Yuu's lips with one finger.
Kamiyā Yuu looked helpless.
"Then I'll call a taxi. Is that acceptable?"
Morishita Aoi reached out and straightened his suit jacket, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips.
"Mm."
Since they still had some time, Kamiyā Yuu made Morishita Aoi a cup of hot milk tea and let her rest.
He took over her work himself, allowing them to enjoy this brief, peaceful moment together.