"You wouldn't want people to know that you're Kashiwagi Eri, would you?"
Devil! She looks so innocent, but she is absolutely a devil!
"Don't use lines from my own doujinshi on me!" Eriri stared vigilantly at Mashiro. "What... what do you want?"
Eriri never expected Mashiro to have read her doujinshi, nor did she think Mashiro could recognize her pen name just from her legitimate oil paintings. Eriri had even fantasized about the consequences if her doujinshi were discovered at school and had even drawn a doujinshi based on that very premise.
But fiction was fiction; Eriri certainly didn't want to experience such a thing in reality. The only thing Eriri was relieved about was that Mashiro was a girl and probably wouldn't enact the plot of her doujinshi. If it were in her doujinshi, the next step would be for Mashiro to call a few thugs to strip her naked and take photos.
After the threat of photos, the next step would be to be endlessly filled with cream puffs, every part of her body developed, and her skin marked with difficult-to-wash-off marker text like "Hot Weapon," "Safe Travels," and tally marks.
When I'm completely broken, lying on the floor sticky with disgusting fluids and lost in a daze, Mashiro would finally straddle my face and pour holy water...
That's one whole doujinshi plot. If she wanted a sequel, it could be forced walks through the academy after school or being forced into compensated dating.
Gulp... Eriri instinctively swallowed.
Although Mashiro clearly wouldn't do the things in the doujinshi, Eriri was still uneasy... At school, Eriri dared not let anyone know about her otaku interests, let alone that she drew doujinshi... and especially doujinshi with a slightly heavy focus on humiliation. Only one person in the entire school knew she drew doujinshi before; now it was two.
"I've read your doujinshi," Mashiro said faintly. "If you don't want others to know, show me the rest of them."
"...Huh?" Eriri breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Mashiro's words. "Why didn't you say so earlier... Just so you know, I'll show you, but you can't tell anyone that I draw doujinshi."
"Mm." Seeing Mashiro nod in agreement, Eriri opened her doujinshi on her phone and handed the phone to her.
Mashiro took the phone and sat on a chair, silently flipping through the pages.
Gulp... Eriri swallowed nervously. After all, sitting across from her was a world-class genius painter. Although Eriri was talented enough in painting to be called a genius, she was still far inferior to Mashiro.
Eriri's doujinshi all centered on humiliation and training. If her body was as pure as a white flower, her sexual fetish was unspeakable like Cthulhu. She basically read everything except for excessively heavy themes like dismemberment.
And Mashiro... Mashiro looked incredibly innocent. Is it really okay to show her this kind of thing? Will it pollute her? Watching the pure-looking Mashiro turn the pages of her humiliation and training doujinshi one by one, Eriri felt an inexplicable sense of guilt.
After a while, the anxious Eriri finally broke the silence, cautiously probing. "Shiina-san, do you... do you really like reading doujinshi?"
"Mm," Mashiro nodded. "I'm drawing a doujinshi."
Phew... Hearing Mashiro's words, Eriri finally relaxed. Although she didn't know why a world-class genius painter would enjoy drawing doujinshi, anyone who liked doujinshi was a fellow enthusiast!
"Are you drawing a doujinshi? Can I see it?" Eriri asked excitedly. At school, Eriri always wore her rich girl mask and never showed her perverted interests... Forget doujinshi; she would even pretend not to know about manga. This was the first time she had met a fellow enthusiast at school!
"I don't have it on my phone. I'll have him send it over." Mashiro took out her phone and messaged Rin Ito, asking him to send the draft of her doujinshi from her computer. Soon after, Rin Ito sent Mashiro's draft, and Mashiro handed the phone to Eriri. Eriri took the phone curiously.
"Let me see, let me see... Wow, a doujinshi with a female-oriented manga style. It used to be rare, but it's becoming more common now."
Doujinshi in the Underworld are divided into male-oriented and female-oriented, with very distinct art styles. Eriri drew male-oriented doujinshi, while Mashiro drew the more aesthetically pleasing female-oriented ones.
"The drawing is really good..." Eriri's expression was somewhat complex. Although it was just a draft, as a fellow artist, Eriri could clearly tell that Mashiro was better than her, and... the drawing was incredibly realistic. Even every bulging vein was drawn, and not just the male protagonist's; the female protagonist's were also drawn with exceptional detail.
Although they were just drafts, why was the depiction of the joining so realistic? Could Mashiro actually be an experienced girl? How is she so experienced?! How many doujinshi has she drawn? Or has she witnessed it firsthand? But Eriri didn't dare to ask such a thing.
"Shiina-san, why did you want to draw a doujinshi?" Having established that they were fellow enthusiasts, Eriri relaxed and pulled up a chair to sit next to Mashiro, asking curiously.
"I want to draw manga. I'm using doujinshi to practice first," Mashiro said faintly. After a pause, she held the phone up to Eriri. "Have you ever been mistreated like this?"
Eriri glanced at the screen, which showed a completely broken female protagonist with every opening tightly filled, and her mouth twitched. "How could I have been mistreated like that!" Eriri paused. "Doujinshi are all fictional. Are you saying that what you draw, Shiina-san, are things you've actually seen?"
"Mm, I've seen it."
"Exactly, how could you have seen it...?! Wait, you've seen it?" Eriri looked at Mashiro in shock. After swallowing, Eriri asked tentatively, "Shiina-san... have you really seen it?" Eriri's heart was pounding. Her mind was already conjuring images of the expressionless Shiina attending orgy parties.
"Mm, I've seen it. I have a model."
"I see." Eriri sighed in relief upon hearing Mashiro's words. If the genius painter Mashiro Shiina were a debauched girl, Eriri felt her world view would have collapsed. A nude model was a completely normal thing for an artist. Although Eriri wasn't short on money, she had never hired a nude model before.
"Is hiring a nude model expensive? Is it just you, Shiina-san? Or are you sharing the cost with others?" Eriri asked curiously. It was quite common for an art class to share a nude model.
"One million yen per month."
"Wow, that expensive?" Although a little surprised, Eriri hadn't dealt with it before and didn't know the rates, but one million wasn't much for Mashiro. "Per month? Is it long-term and unlimited sessions? Is it just you, Shiina-san, or with others?"
"With others." Mashiro raised her face, tilted her head, and looked at Eriri. "Do you want to join us?"
Faced with Mashiro's invitation, Eriri's eyes lit up. Although Eriri had many friends at school, they were all friends she made while wearing her rich girl mask. None of those friends truly knew Eriri's hobbies. And now... Mashiro not only liked doujinshi, but she also drew them!
However... if it were just Mashiro alone, it would be fine, but the fact that Mashiro was with others made Eriri hesitate. Only her parents knew her identity as Kashiwagi Eri. Even the other members of her circle didn't know; Eriri had always communicated with them online. Even when selling doujinshi at conventions, Eriri would only watch from the side, wearing makeup to avoid detection.
The people Mashiro was with must be from the doujinshi community. What if someone else said, "You wouldn't want people to know that you're Kashiwagi Eri, would you?" Especially since I draw slightly heavy humiliation doujinshi. If my identity is exposed, my school life will be over!
But... that's a nude model! As a doujinshi artist, she had never actually seen the opposite sex naked with her own eyes. Curiosity made Eriri feel ants crawling all over her body!
"Shiina-san, can you keep my secret? Don't tell the others who draw with you about my identity," Eriri asked tentatively after swallowing.
"No problem. Do you want to join?" Seeing Mashiro nod in agreement, Eriri's blue eyes sparkled, and she nodded without hesitation.
"I'll join!"