Arcane, the president's office.
Aoi browsed through the online reactions to Clannad and could not help letting a small smile cross her face.
"The Tearjerker Demon King, huh?"
"That's pretty good."
"Shido said he was going to use the second half of season two to elevate the entire anime into a classic among classics. I didn't fully believe him at the time. But he actually pulled it off."
She murmured to herself.
Beside her, assistant Sumire Kanzaki could not resist speaking up. "President Shido really is amazing. I was bawling last night."
"You watched it too?" Aoi looked surprised. "You never mentioned it before."
"Never had the chance to bring it up," Sumire said simply. "It's the anime you invested in, and your future depends on it. As your assistant, of course I'd watch it. Plus, President Shido, he's..."
"He's what?" Aoi looked puzzled.
"Nothing, nothing!" Sumire shook her head quickly.
What she had wanted to say was: President Shido was that handsome, that talented, and that loyal, all of those qualities wrapped up in one man. How could she not watch something he made?
But she could not quite read the relationship between her boss and that particular president, so keeping her mouth shut seemed like the safer call.
Aoi was curious but did not press.
She was about to call Yuta when a figure walked into the office.
Without even knocking. That could only be one person. Ryouga.
She looked up at him and frowned. "Did you need something?"
"Sis."
Ryouga took a deep breath and said, "That Yuta Shido guy has some skill, I'll give him that. But he's just some anime guy. I'll never approve of him."
"I've told you already, we're not dating," Aoi said wearily.
"Doesn't matter. Dating or not, I'll never accept him. Even if he helped you beat me this time, I still won't," Ryouga huffed, then turned and walked out.
Aoi: "???"
"President."
Sumire suddenly gathered her courage and asked, "Is there really nothing going on between you and President Shido?"
"Even you're doubting me now?" Aoi was exasperated.
"He was willing to make enemies of your brother and the entire Fuji family for your sake. And when he heard you were in trouble, he was even more worried than I was," Sumire pointed out.
Aoi paused, then something occurred to her. "Back then, I never told him where I was. But he found me anyway. Did you sell me out?"
"Absolutely not."
Sumire denied it firmly. "I'm your assistant. I would never betray you even under threat of death. The fact that President Shido found you just proves how much he cares about you. I don't know the details of what happened, but he must have searched for a very long time."
Aoi was skeptical but only asked out of curiosity. She had no intention of pressing the matter.
'Shido, huh?'
She let the thought linger for a moment. If she really had to be with Yuta, it was not something she would find entirely unacceptable. At the very least, compared to marrying into the Sanjo family, she would much rather be with him.
But it was just a passing thought.
In her mind, a relationship between them was impossible.
They were business partners. And with the Fuji family looming like a mountain between them, she could not possibly take someone like Yuta as a boyfriend.
...
Tokyo, a certain studio apartment.
Kenji Okamura scrolled through the online praise for Clannad and scratched his head, muttering, "Is it really that emotional?"
After Clannad season two episode fifteen aired, Arcane had blanketed every surface with promotion, which had pulled him in.
But then episode sixteen dropped and the female lead died.
That nuclear-level twist had left him dazed for days.
Even after Yuta said she would come back, he had not planned to keep watching.
What he never expected was that just two weeks later, Clannad's reputation would completely explode, reaching heights he could not have imagined.
Countless people said episode eighteen had made them cry. He was half-wondering if the production company had hired people to fake reviews.
Of course, that was just idle suspicion. He knew it was impossible. Clannad's popularity was too high, and the scores on major rating sites could not be faked.
Kenji had originally started watching Clannad because of its "healing" and "emotionally moving" tags. Now that he realized episode eighteen was supposedly this powerful, he suddenly felt like picking the show back up.
But he still hesitated.
Episode sixteen had put him through the wringer. Was it really safe to go back?
Episodes seventeen and eighteen seemed fine, but after that... they would not go dark again, would they?
After wavering for a while, he posted online.
"I stopped watching Clannad S2 after episode sixteen. I heard that episode eighteen is incredible, I want to catch up and keep following. Is that safe? Will it get brutal again?"
If it had been any other topic, replies might have taken forever. But Clannad was the hottest thing going right now, and answers poured in almost instantly.
"Of course it's safe."
"Hurry up and watch. You'll regret it if you don't."
"Episode sixteen was rough, but President Shido confirmed that Nagisa comes back later. As for whether it gets brutal again, I don't think it will. You can watch without worrying."
"There are only a few episodes left. There's no way they'd go dark again."
"I'm obviously not the great demon king and I haven't read the scripts, but based on everything so far, the rest should be healing content. It might make you cry from being moved, but more suffering is pretty much off the table."
Reading through these, Kenji finally relaxed.
But what really sealed the deal was one particular reply.
"Watch in peace. It definitely won't get dark again. If there's even a hint of suffering, I'll run three laps naked and upside-down around my local park. You have my word."
Someone was putting that much on the line to reassure him. It would be embarrassing to keep dithering after that.
He posted a reply.
"Thanks, everyone. I'm going to catch up on episodes seventeen and eighteen and keep watching from here. Hopefully I won't be too much of a mess."
After that, he opened the streaming platform on his computer, went to the on-demand section, and paid to watch Clannad season two episodes seventeen and eighteen.
Each episode was a little over twenty minutes. Together, they ran under fifty.
Even knowing full well how emotional episode eighteen was supposed to be, by the time he finished, Kenji was crying uncontrollably.
"A masterpiece. An absolute masterpiece."
"Yuta Shido really does deserve the Tearjerker Demon King title."
"Catching up was the right call."
With that settled, he found himself looking forward to episodes nineteen and twenty.
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