The desserts they had ordered had already been placed on the table, but Sawamura Eriri still kept her head lowered, quietly whining to herself as she felt her embarrassment level had completely exceeded the limit.
Watching her, Kasumigaoka Utaha gradually revealed a pleased, almost perverse smile.
She suddenly realized that she seemed to really enjoy seeing Eriri suffer setbacks.
After that thought crossed her mind, Utaha turned toward Sato. A faint smile appeared on her lips as she asked,
"Could it be that Miyabi-sensei is planning another big move?"
"I wouldn't call it a big move. Just a few ideas."
Sato smiled and took a light sip of his coffee. Then, looking at the girl beside him with her head lowered, he amusedly nudged her soft shoulder with his elbow.
"What?"
Eriri replied sullenly.
"Why did you suddenly stop talking? Are you embarrassed?"
"W-Who would be embarrassed?!"
Eriri raised her head angrily, her face bright red as she glared at him. Her teeth lightly bit her lower lip, and a faint mist filled her eyes.
Yet she continued staring straight at Sato without looking away, locking eyes with him through those watery sapphire-blue eyes.
Sato hadn't expected that he would be the first one unable to endure it.
After all, who could withstand a delicate and adorable girl like Eriri looking at them with misty eyes?
For some reason, he suddenly felt a faint pang of sympathy.
Looking away, his gaze landed on the documents on the table, and he decided to use them to divert Eriri's attention.
"How about taking a look at this?"
"Who wants to look at that stuff?"
Although Eriri said that, the words "Illustration Section Launch" on the document made it impossible for her to look away.
"W-What's this?"
In the end, she couldn't suppress her curiosity and asked while pretending to remain calm.
"It's about opening a dedicated illustration section on the website. Originally, I thought Miyabi-sensei was doing it for the site's development, but now it seems it might actually be for Kashiwagi Eri-sensei..."
Kosaka Akane smiled as she shamelessly made things up from the side, thoroughly enjoying herself as she added fuel to the fire.
"F-For me..."
The moment Eriri heard that word, her face instantly turned crimson. She trembled as she muttered to herself.
Steam practically rose from the top of her head, and even her beautiful sapphire eyes became unfocused.
Sato's mouth twitched.
Looking at Kosaka Akane, who was covering her mouth and laughing, he let out a long sigh.
Please, have some humanity, would you?!
Stop bullying Eriri already!
Why does everyone enjoy picking on Eriri so much?!
Although Eriri was indeed petite and adorable, and would start whining pitifully after even a little teasing, and she was a tsundere who never said what she really meant, and when she got angry she could only bare her little canine teeth and glare at people with those beautiful eyes...
But...
It really did seem pretty fun to tease her...
Ah, no!
He had almost fallen into the dangerous mindset of "bullying Eriri is actually fun."
Sato bared his teeth and exhaled deeply before lightly patting Eriri's shoulder.
"Alright, just ignore Kosaka-sensei."
She's not a good person!
"Mhm."
Eriri responded softly with her head still lowered.
Holding the proposal document, Sato looked at the group and said,
"The website has recently decided to add several new sections. The illustration section is one of them. Our goal is to turn the site into a platform that combines sharing, communication, entertainment, learning, trading, and more."
"If I remember correctly, Kuroneko, you draw illustrations too, right?"
Sitting upright with her elegant hime-style haircut, Gokou Ruri nodded.
However, she modestly replied,
"I've only dabbled in it a little. It's nowhere near presentable."
Sato smiled.
"You don't need to be so humble. If I remember correctly, your personal style is quite distinctive. That's something many artists can't achieve."
"If there were a place where people could exchange ideas and learn from one another, do you think your drawing skills would improve?"
Gokou Ruri fell silent for a moment before nodding.
"I think so. Just like with light novels, I was only able to debut successfully after receiving guidance from Senpai. If I can learn more knowledge, my skills should improve as well."
"Miyabi-sensei, aside from illustrations, what are the other two projects?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had been listening with great interest, couldn't help looking toward the other two documents.
Eriri quietly perked up her ears as well.
"Music, and... a danmaku system."
"Danmaku?"
The unfamiliar term left all three girls looking confused.
"That's right. A system attached to videos... and livestreams. Let me show you."
Sato took out the laptop he had brought with him.
This was a prototype he had asked Ryunosuke to make overnight.
The girls watched without blinking, and even Kosaka Akane's expression became considerably more serious.
He opened the laptop and clicked on a video file.
An animated video began playing.
At first, nothing seemed unusual.
But soon, lines of text resembling subtitles started flying across the screen from the right side like shooting stars.
[Holy crap! That sword technique is amazing!]
[Flame Sword? Isn't that Sonia's skill?]
[Did you even watch properly? Didn't the last episode say this is Sonia's disciple?]
The video was short, but very interesting.
Kosaka Akane and the girls watched with great interest.
This novel danmaku system was different from ordinary comments. It somehow felt more... intimate.
"Well?"
Sato asked for their impressions.
"It feels... like a lot of people are watching together."
"Yeah. It feels lively. There's none of that loneliness you get when watching a video by yourself."
"Exactly! I've actually watched this anime before, and I wasn't very interested in it. But now it suddenly feels much more fun."
Everyone chimed in with their opinions.
Although they kept circling back to the same two points, those happened to be the most important ones.
Entertainment value.
Community engagement.
Danmaku provided exactly that kind of fun and atmosphere.
That was its greatest strength.
Sato exchanged a glance with Kosaka Akane.
Listening to everyone's evaluations, she quietly nodded. A spark of interest flashed through her eyes as she looked at the screen.
This thing really was quite interesting.