"I genuinely had no idea," soone said.
"You can write music like this too?"
"How many songs have you been secretly sitting on?"
"Why haven't you published any of them like you do with your manga and novels?"
Because I copied them all from mory and never planned to make a career out of songwriting, that's why.
But Tsushima Kagami obviously couldn't say that out loud, so he just laughed it off.
Machida Sonoko had already bowed her head and was scribbling furiously in her notebook again.
anwhile, Yukinoshita Shizuku, Sayuri, and Kosaka Akane were all resting their chins in their hands, staring at Tsushima Kagami with dreamy, unfocused eyes.
"Can you please stop looking at like that?"
Tsushima Kagami was about to snap them out of it — when he felt sothing grab his trouser leg.
He looked down. Hiroi Kikuri was flat on the floor, both hands clutching the hem of his pants.
"Senpai, senpai!"
"You can't leave, senpai — please, please teach how to write songs!"
She was on the ground, weeping and wailing and doing so kind of dramatic floor-crawl.
How is she this far gone without even a single drink?
"Look, it's all… flashes of inspiration. I just jot things down as they co to . There really isn't anything I can teach you."
"Fine, you don't have to teach ." Hiroi Kikuri sniffled. "But could you please be our band's music producer?
"You're the one who saved this band from the brink, senpai.
"You can't just abandon us now~"
"Wuuuuu."
"At the very least, please write us a few songs like the ones you just played."
"Kohai, get up first," Tsushima Kagami said. "The floor is filthy."
He hurried over to help Hiroi Kikuri up — only for her to wipe her tears and runny nose straight onto his trouser leg.
"Ah, I'm not getting up until you say yes!"
Tsushima Kagami looked around helplessly at everyone else, then turned to Ijichi Seika.
Before he could even say anything, Ijichi Seika's cheeks flushed and she spoke first.
"I… I also hope you'll consider being our music producer."
PA-san imdiately shot her hand up.
"I second that!"
" too!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka's hand flew up right after.
Tsushima Kagami finally turned to Yukinoshita Shizuku, hoping for rescue.
Yukinoshita Shizuku just smiled.
"You've quietly written this many songs already — what's a few more?"
"Right, right! Write a few more for us — we want to hear them too!"
Sayuri and Kosaka Akane nodded along enthusiastically.
"Absolutely not. Nobody gets to push into sothing I don't want to do!"
Tsushima Kagami made sure his voice carried so real weight this ti.
Are you kidding ? Caving the mont a few girls bat their eyelashes? What would that make ?
A man has to have dignity. A man has to have a line he won't cross. Nobody gets to step over it — nobody!
Yukinoshita Shizuku blinked, a little surprised. Kagami was being unusually stubborn today — she just couldn't tell whether it was shy tsundere posturing or genuine reluctance.
So Yukinoshita Shizuku went ahead and said it plainly: "By the way, Sayuri and the others ntioned you all did mixed bathing in swimsuits at a hot spring in Sendai, didn't they."
"Ah — why are you bringing that up out of nowhere?"
Tsushima Kagami shot a glare at Sayuri. Honestly, don't just casually drop topics like that!
Yukinoshita Shizuku glanced at Ijichi Seika and the others, then narrowed her eyes with a little smile.
"How about this — if Kagami agrees to be the light music club's music producer, then Seika and the others will do mixed bathing with you in swimsuits. How does that sound?"
…?
That's not mixed bathing if you're wearing swimsuits!
And who even wants to see swimsuits!
Tsushima Kagami was just about to refuse when Hiroi Kikuri, still writhing dramatically on the floor, shot her hand up instantly.
"I'm in, I'm in!
"A high-cut one-piece works for !"
"High-cut?!"
"No problem for either!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka raised her hand too.
"If it's for senpai to see, I'm totally fine~"
PA-san laughed and added her agreent as well.
Everyone then turned to look at Ijichi Seika.
Ijichi Seika kept her head down; no one could read her expression.
"H-high-cut swimsuit…"
"I… I'd be okay with it too."
Sayuri tugged Kosaka Akane over and leaned in.
"Don't forget us — we want to go to the hot spring too!
"We'll wear them too!"
At that, Yukinoshita Shizuku stepped closer to Tsushima Kagami with a smile.
"So? What do you say?"
Tsushima Kagami answered with a dismissive laugh.
"I refuse!"
"What kind of person do you all take for?! So sleazy industry casting-couch creep?!"
Nobody had expected even this to fail to move him. The room deflated with collective disappointnt.
Hiroi Kikuri was still sprawled on the floor, arm stretched out plaintively.
"Senpai… nude mixed bathing is also an option, you know."
At those words, the room went still. Then everyone exchanged glances, suddenly uncertain and wavering.
Tsushima Kagami, with the warm and benevolent expression of a saint, reached down and hauled Hiroi Kikuri firmly to her feet. He dusted off her clothes.
"Kikuri-kohai."
"You need to treasure yourself. Please, never stray down the wrong path."
"And whatever you do — don't let hear anything like 'casting-couch business' from you again. That kind of thing is heartbreaking."
Hiroi Kikuri, who had blurted that out in a mont of flustered desperation, never expected Tsushima Kagami to turn around and show her such genuine concern. Her face and the rims of her eyes went red with emotion.
"Senpai, I swear I'll walk this path with my head held high from now on!"
"Good. That's the spirit, Kikuri-kohai. Very admirable."
Tsushima Kagami gave Hiroi Kikuri a firm pat on the shoulder, then looked over at Sayuri and the others.
"Ti to head back."
"Oh, right."
Sayuri and Kosaka Akane, still a little crestfallen, went to drag Machida Sonoko — who was still scribbling away like her pen was on fire — along with them as they prepared to head back to the Manga Research Club.
Then Tsushima Kagami was grabbed again.
"Don't say anything else, Shizuku."
"A friendship this pure and youthful must not be tainted by backdoor dealings!
"We say no to unspoken rules!"
Tsushima Kagami struck a righteous "da da" pose.
Yukinoshita Shizuku ignored all of it entirely and leaned close to his ear, voice soft.
"You've been secretly drawing my chest, haven't you."
Tsushima Kagami's heart lurched. He froze on the spot.
Yukinoshita Shizuku watched his expression and gave a quiet smile, then continued.
"The style of lingerie in those drawings — that would be from the night I had a fever in Chiba and asked you to help unhook my bra, wouldn't it~"
"You drew so many of them in secret, didn't you."
"And you were careless enough that I found them~"
Tsushima Kagami's mind drifted back to that night. No matter how many tis he'd tried since, he could never quite capture in the drawing what he was reaching for in his heart. His illustration skill was approaching 80 now, but how to put it —
He had technique without soul. He didn't know how many more stat points he'd need before that kind of soulful "intent" might appear.
But compared to the uncertainty of stat allocation and the ever-climbing point costs, Tsushima Kagami could feel it — if he could just get this one drawing right, he would grasp painting's true "intent." That is: the thing that genuinely makes a picture co alive.
And yet he couldn't paint what his mind's eye saw. He kept thinking — what if…
What if he only needed to see it one more ti to get it right?
So he followed the opening Yukinoshita Shizuku had given him and said,
"I…"
"No matter how many tis I try to recall it in my head, I just can't capture the feeling I'm trying to express."
"So… what if I tried seeing it one more ti?"
"Maybe then I could actually paint it?"
"…Would that be… okay?"
Tsushima Kagami looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku with wide, uncertain eyes — she seed, in this mont, like a devil whispering in his ear.
"Then write a few songs for us in return."
"Kikuri-kohai has been in a really rough creative slump lately, you know."
Yukinoshita Shizuku continued in that sa gentle, quiet voice.
"This… this is a casting-couch deal!"
Tsushima Kagami snapped back to his senses. He couldn't agree to sothing like this!
There was no coming back from that!
Yukinoshita Shizuku's smile remained perfectly calm.
"I wouldn't call it that."
"After all, you've already seen it."
"This is just… a small favor I can offer to help you along."
"A… a small favor?"
Once again, Yukinoshita Shizuku's honeyed words pulled his focus right out from under him.
"What are they saying over there?"
"Can't make it out."
Ijichi Seika and the others, along with Kosaka Akane, turned to Sayuri.
"But… the Shizuku over there right now feels a little scary."
They all watched Tsushima Kagami's expression cycling through sunken, lucid, and completely entranced — and nodded together.
"Yeah."
"Mutual benefit."
"You help the light music club break through its creative ceiling."
"And I, on behalf of the light music club, help you break through your ceiling in painting."
"What do you say?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku's words rang out in crisp, clear syllables — reverberating through the left and right hemispheres of Tsushima Kagami's brain in infinite 3D surround sound, reverb and all.
After a long, long silence, Tsushima Kagami's eyes finally cleared.
He looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku. Then at the girls standing nearby.
And then Tsushima Kagami burst into wild, almost unhinged laughter.
The tide surges on the Qiantang River — and only today do I know who I truly am!
I rember now. I rember everything.
I am not a Master.
Not a Doctor.
Not a Teacher.
Not an Admiral.
Not a Knight.
Not a Trainer.
Not a Commander.
I am…
I am everyone's Producer!
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Ga: Starting with Shirogane Kei
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!
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