Asakura scrutinized the girl's artwork for a moment, then lamented.
"So suggestive."
"What kind of weird nonsense are you spouting now..."
Eriri, who hadn't slept well, rubbed her throbbing temples and complained impatiently.
"No, I'm serious..."
Asakura turned the manuscript paper around to show Eriri: "Although you drew different versions for both the male and female uniforms, the double standard is a bit much."
The uniforms redrawn (or rather, redesigned) by Eriri did indeed look much more fashionable than Asakura had initially imagined, changing from black-based cloaks into something resembling trench coats.
However, the male portion only consisted of the simplest three-view diagrams, and even the coloring was just a few casual strokes; it was clearly in the middle of transitioning from a sketch to a refined draft.
The female portion, on the other hand, was far more detailed. Not only were there many notes on the specifics, but the characters' poses and movements far surpassed the male version.
Moreover, likely due to professional habit, those few female sketches could be described as "displaying the characters in various poses" to be kind. To be more direct, they were striking suggestive poses—and quite inflammatory ones at that.
Even if it wasn't intentional, but merely habitual drawing, it still vividly displayed the prowess of the legendary eroge master "Kashiwagi Eri."
"Incredible," even Asakura couldn't help but offer a sincere sigh of admiration, "As expected of you."
"I don't want to be praised for something like this!"
Eriri shouted with tears in her eyes, her tone caught between embarrassment and distress.
"Speaking of which, although they look like the same model at first glance, if you look closely, there are some subtle differences between the male and female uniforms in your drawing, right?" Asakura continued.
"Necessary modifications for visual appeal... anyway, since the sizes of male and female uniforms are completely different, and these are custom-made rather than mass-produced, such small differences can just be handled during production," Eriri muttered, wiping the corners of her eyes.
It seemed she had done some research on cosplay as well.
Asakura thought for a moment and didn't reply directly. Instead, he asked in his mind: Can the Nameless Magic Book make gender-specific variations for the uniforms?
[Yes]
Asakura: "..."
At this point, the idea of "making female uniforms into bikini armor" was something he could no longer say out loud.
"Alright, thanks anyway. I'll take this design draft and discuss it with the others in the Magic Club."
Asakura accepted the design draft quite readily.
"Eh, is that it?" Eriri was actually stunned.
"What else?"
"Normally, as the client, wouldn't you raise some nitpicking demands, and after changing it several versions only to find your own taste and requirements make the final product worse and worse, then pinch your nose and say 'use the first version'?"
"You sound like you have deep personal experience with that?"
"I'm fine as a freelancer. Although I don't have an organization or backing in the circle, I can still drop the job if I get pushed too far. The artists signed with 'Art Design Companies' are the ones who truly suffer," Eriri grumbled, unable to help herself from yawning again.
"Are you really okay?" Asakura looked at the girl who seemed ready to fall asleep at any second and pulled a few mints from his pocket. "I have some candy here, do you want some?"
"No need, I brought my own..."
In a tone nearing a sleep-talker's mumble, Eriri pulled a white "candy" from her pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and stuffed it into her mouth.
"By the way, I ran into that Kasumigaoka you mentioned over at the shopping street just now."
Seeing this, Asakura put his mints back in his pocket and told her about his encounter with Utako: "But same as my previous judgment, there's still no way for now... What's wrong with you?"
Before Asakura could finish, he noticed that Eriri's eyes, which had been half-closed from exhaustion, were now wide open, and her expression was extremely strange.
The girl didn't answer Asakura's question. Instead, she reached out and pulled a white "face" out of her mouth.
No, to be precise, it was a white face mask—it seemed she had just stuffed a compressed facial mask into her mouth, mistaking it for candy.
Both Asakura and Eriri stared blankly at the saliva-soaked mask in her hand.
Eriri shook the mask expressionlessly and then said: "M... magic!"
"No, you just straight up ate the wrong thing, didn't you?"
"Ugh..."
"Is a mint okay?"
"Yeah..."
She peeled off the wrapper and popped it in. The cool sting of the mint gave the girl a jolt, clearing her head considerably.
However, her mood didn't brighten; instead, she became even more dejected.
Thinking back, the girl realized she always seemed to display various failures in front of him, which made the naturally competitive girl feel quite miserable.
"Don't overthink things. At least you perfectly met my requirements, didn't you?" Asakura spoke up unexpectedly.
"...Mind reading?" The girl looked at Asakura warily.
"Unfortunately, I don't have that ability," Asakura smiled. "It's just that I know a thing or two about creatures like tsunderes. Over-sensitive self-esteem was quite popular back in my day."
"Tsunderes were popular... are you from the Showa era?" Eriri looked at Asakura with some disdain.
"The era when tsunderes were popular isn't that old," Asakura grumbled.
"Who's your favorite tsundere character?" the girl asked.
"Asuka."
"Isn't that quite old-fashioned!"
"I'm talking about Mashiro Arisaka"
"Oh, AoKana..."
"Eriri, you really do play eroge."
"Shut up, that has an anime too! And Mashiro Arisaka isn't even a tsundere character!"
"Mm-hmm~"
"What's with that suspicious sound?" Eriri squinted at Asakura. "Well then, let me ask one more thing. Who's your favorite kuudere?"
"Ayanami."
"It really is Evangelion! That's purely a 'middle-aged man' preference!"
"Silence. Even if you asked the unmarried, middle-aged Japanese teacher in our class, her answer would be the same!"
"Doesn't that just prove your tastes are ancient!"
(In a pub, Hiratsuka, who was dragging Haruno out for drinks, sneezed.)
"For the record, my favorite heroine used to be Nausicaä."
"I don't even want to comment anymore..." The girl's twin tails drooped, looking completely exhausted.
After the joking, Asakura asked Eriri: "Since the design draft is done, do you want to come with me to the Magic Club meeting later?"
Eriri looked a bit tempted, but after thinking for a moment, she shook her head.
"Forget it. I'm going home to sleep."