December 29th was supposed to be the broadcast date for episode thirteen of Code Geass, but with the new year approaching, the network had other programming scheduled, so episode thirteen got pushed to January 5th instead.
Starfall had burned the midnight oil to finish episode thirteen by the evening of the 28th, and by the morning of the 29th, everyone was officially on holiday.
Yuta, who had been grinding without a proper break for an entire year, could finally get some real rest.
On the 29th, Yuta basically slept through the entire day.
Then on the 30th, Kotone showed up.
"Big bro Yuta, it's been so long!" Kotone greeted him with a bright smile.
"Kotone, it really has been a while." Yuta said as he stepped aside to let her in and closed the door behind her.
This distant cousin had come to spend New Year's with him. Since they had arranged it in advance, her arrival was no surprise to Yuta whatsoever.
Of course, it was also the wish of Kotone's parents, not just something she had decided on her own. If it had been entirely her idea, Yuta might have turned it down.
Kotone had been to his new place before, so she did not feel the need to look around. She found herself a spot to sit, then pulled a thick stack of manuscript pages out of her bag.
"Big bro, these are the scripts I've been working on lately. Could you take a look at them for me?"
"Sure, but I've got laundry and cleaning to get to during the day. How about I take a look tonight instead?" Yuta suggested.
"You look first. I'll take care of the laundry and cleaning."
"That doesn't feel right..."
"It's fine! There's nothing wrong with it."
"Alright then. Thanks for your help."
Yuta was not exactly the most diligent person when it came to household tasks, or rather, the only time he truly threw himself into something with full energy was when he was making a tearjerker anime.
Having someone volunteer to take care of the laundry and cleaning was about as good as things could get.
He picked up the thick stack of pages, settled into a comfortable spot, and quietly began reading through them.
The original ideas for the topics had all come from Yuta himself, and he had even locked down the titles, so what he was mainly reading for was the actual content.
First up was K-On!
The original version of K-On! was genuinely touching in its own way, but it was not a tearjerker show. What Yuta actually remembered of it was the character designs for the main girls, a handful of the songs, a certain blue-and-white bowl, and tea. Tea. Tea.
The finer details had long since escaped him.
He had been counting on Kotone to help reconstruct them, but after reading through it carefully, she did not seem to have a strong handle on the everyday slice-of-life genre. The whole thing felt awkward to him in ways he could not quite pin down.
The second script was Shana of the Burning Eyes.
As for the story, Yuta only had a rough recollection of the broad strokes. What he remembered clearly, on the other hand, was Shana's love of melon bread and the iconic string of insults she was famous for delivering.
Kotone's version was noticeably different from the original, but it was unexpectedly solid. With some careful polishing, it could very well become something worth adapting.
Of course, in both cases, Kotone had only written the first five episodes rather than completing the full scripts, but since the openings were in good shape, the rest should not be too much of a problem.
With that in mind, Yuta spoke up. "Kotone, let's put K-On! on hold for now. That genre doesn't really play to your strengths. But Shana of the Burning Eyes is worth continuing. It looks good so far."
"Really?!" Kotone's face lit up with excitement.
"Of course it's real. Why would I lie to you?"
Yuta continued, "Once you're done, I'll walk you through the things to keep in mind for the rest of it. Wait, I already finished reading and you haven't even started cleaning yet."
"I'm starting now, I'm starting! I was just waiting to hear what you thought first."
"..."
"Big bro, how about you give me the rundown first, and then I'll clean after?"
"No. Absolutely not. We clean first. Together. Then I'll explain everything."
Yuta was not about to fall for that. If he gave the full rundown first, there was no telling whether Kotone would actually follow through on the cleaning.
He set down the scripts, and the two of them got to work cleaning the whole apartment from top to bottom. Only after they had finished every last corner did he sit down and walk Kotone through the things to keep in mind going forward.
...
December 31st.
Yuta slept straight through to noon.
After lunch, he and Kotone headed out together to buy ingredients for their New Year's Eve dinner.
This time there was no run-in with Yuzuki or any other familiar face, but partway through the shopping trip, Yuta suddenly remembered something and quickly pulled out his phone to call Aoi.
"Aoi, is Seira with you?"
"No, she went back to her hometown. Why, are you coming over to ring in the New Year with me?"
"I'm with my cousin, the Kotone you've met before. If you don't mind, you're welcome to come over here. Three people is livelier than one."
"With your cousin?"
"Yeah."
"Send me the address. I'll head over later."
"Sounds good."
...
On the last day of 2006, Yuta had spent New Year's alone at home and made a wish to find a girlfriend before the year was out.
In 2007, the girlfriend had not materialized, but at least he was not spending New Year's alone anymore.
In fairness, the main reason for that was how relentlessly busy he had been all year. If not for that, a face like his was the kind that came along once in a thousand, and finding a girlfriend would not have been any real challenge.
Regardless, New Year's 2007 had been a good one. But just like that, 2008 had arrived.
Time to start thinking about where to hide.
In the other world he came from, there had never been any reports of fans putting out a manhunt for Ichiro Okochi. But then again, Jun Maeda had not exactly escaped without people coming after him either.
Better to be careful.
Even though no one had started hunting for him yet and nobody was going around asking where Yuta Shido was, Yuta could already sense from the audience's reaction that trouble was on the horizon.
Getting ahead of it and finding somewhere to lay low early was clearly the right call.
The most comfortable hiding spot would obviously be Seira's grand luxury villa, but Code Geass was an entirely different beast from Clannad in terms of workload, and the production process required his direct attention and detailed instruction far more often. Managing everything through video calls alone would probably not cut it.
If working remotely was off the table, then the only real option was to hide in plain sight at the studio itself.
So it was time to start living at the office. On top of giving him a place to lie low, it would also cut out the commute entirely and free up more of his energy for production, which in turn meant a better tearjerking experience for the audience.
As for getting used to sleeping at the office, the first few days would definitely be rough. But he would probably adjust over time, and besides, if it was all in service of delivering the audience a truly moving experience, he would force himself to get used to it even if he never really did.
Once his mind was made up, Yuta did not even wait for the official return to work on January 5th. On January 3rd, he packed his things and moved into the studio.
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