"Please… ask that lady not to sue my mom. I beg you."
"You're a big celebrity, you must have a way!"
Clutching his sleeve, Sagiri shook it back and forth desperately, pleading. Tears were already pooling in her eyes, ready to fall.
"Then will you listen to everything I say from now on?" Takashi asked.
He felt like some shady uncle trying to coax a little girl.
"I will."
"You'll do anything I say?"
"I will."
"Then call me Onii-chan," he teased.
"O... Onii-…" For some reason, Sagiri found it hard to call him that.
Even her older stepbrother Izumi Masamune had only been called that once, and it was under her mom's pressure.
Calling Takashi that made her feel like she was betraying Masamune.
"Not willing? Then let's go ahead and sue."
Takashi wasn't one to force others—if you didn't want to call him that, then he'd just sue your mom.
"Onii-chan..."
Sagiri gave in, shame forgotten, and called out to him.
"I can't hear you."
Sagiri was miserable.
She shut her eyes and shouted, "Onii-chan!"
Only then did Takashi turn to Ogitsu Yoshiko, satisfied. "Don't sue her for now. Have someone draft a contract."
Ogitsu Yoshiko made a call, and soon a woman from the legal department came over.
She briefly confirmed the details with Takashi and finalized the contract. Then she took Sagiri with her to complete the formalities.
After Sagiri left, Ogitsu Yoshiko looked at Takashi.
"You don't even spare twelve-year-old girls? Looks like I won't be letting my daughter near you in the future."
Truthfully, ever since Takashi brought Sagiri in, Ogitsu Yoshiko knew they wouldn't actually sue her.
She just played along to scare the girl.
"You're already close to a power outage and water shutoff, and you still think about having kids?"
"Do you have a death wish?"
Ogitsu Yoshiko, furious, crumpled the papers in her hand and hurled them at Takashi.
He tilted his head and dodged.
"About the studio I'm setting up—wanna invest and take a share?" Takashi changed the subject quickly.
"Do I look like I'm made of money?" she grumbled.
"Heh, don't regret it later then."
She originally didn't care, but seeing Takashi's smug 'I'm about to strike gold face', she started to doubt herself.
Say what you will—reckless, provocative, troublesome—but Takashi has never lost.
Take his recent defense of a bullied girl for example. Despite some negative press, his overall reputation had actually improved.
Some who had experienced school bullying even started admiring him, saying he'd make a great police officer who stood up for the people.
Can you believe it?
"So what's your plan?" she asked.
"Let her keep drawing doujin."
His answer was too vague and annoyed her.
"Be specific."
"Make her famous and throw her on Bilibili to make money."
Takashi's sights were never limited to Japan.
He was targeting his homeland.
Years ago, when a well-known Japanese doujin artist, Bureau Chief, officially joined Bilibili, it caused quite a stir and drew lots of LSPs (lewd-sensitive people).
Through persistent uploads and interaction, he gained over 400,000 followers.
And he wasn't the first.
Many Japanese doujin artists followed suit.
Everyone knows Pixiv—a platform for fanart and illustrations, filled with beautiful art—and, hidden within, plenty of R18 content.
A lot of adult artists started transitioning from Pixiv to Bilibili, setting up accounts, interacting in Chinese, and seriously running their channels.
Due to their controversial content, most don't receive official Bilibili verification. If users want to find them, they often need to search their full names or specific UIDs.
Even so, they remain active and attract many fans.
Takashi realized that many doujin works from this world hadn't been created here yet. So why not just copy them?
People plagiarize novels—he plagiarizes doujin. A noble service to the people.
"You're planning to go international?" Ogitsu Yoshiko was shocked.
Takashi's plan never occurred to her.
"Yep."
"But can a sensitive job like being a doujin artist even make money overseas? All those translated doujins are free in Zhonghua."
Doujin artists make money by selling their work.
But if everything is pirated and freely translated, how can they profit?
"Who said we're making money from selling doujins? How much can that bring in? We're building a brand, an IP. The money comes from merchandise."
Take the artist Moyoyu Milk—Takashi knew she had made tens of millions from Chinese otaku.
For certain reasons, her doujins couldn't be sold directly in China.
But fans still supported her by buying merch or cosplay accessories—some even flew to Japan just to meet her.
What's disgusting is she took their money and then insulted them.
In her doujins, she passive-aggressively complained about Chinese fans, blaming them for costing her profits through piracy—when the original leaks came from Koreans.
Chinese translators were merely working off the pirated Korean or English versions.
Even the proxy buyers couldn't take it anymore and clapped back.
Mind you, over 14 million copies of her Jewel of Jewels were ordered by Chinese readers.
That kind of hypocritical behavior? Disgusting.
"But we don't know the Chinese market or how to operate over there," Ogitsu voiced her concern.
She had always wanted to tap into the Chinese market but didn't know how.
"I do."
No one knows better than Takashi how to extract money from otaku.
Why is the 2D market such a goldmine?
Take a simple badge, for instance—
Metal: 10 cents
Stamping: 10 cents
Printing: 20 cents
Total cost: less than 50 cents
As long as it's official, you can sell it for 50 yuan—and 2D fans will gladly pay.
The profit margin is insane.
They even convince themselves they're saving money: "Hey, it's official!"
Back in the day, you couldn't even sell one of those pins for 2 yuan.
Only the 2D crowd would buy it.
They're a bizarre bunch—sometimes incredibly classy, sometimes unbelievably degenerate.
Takashi had already planned it all: once Eromanga becomes a known IP, he'd register an account on Bilibili and post:
"I love Zhonghua!"
If that doesn't hit the nationalistic sweet spot, what will?
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