He couldn't be a plagiarism novelist from his past life—a trope where one transmigrates to an alternate world and copies works from the original world. But Rin Ito could plagiarize himself.
What Rin Ito drew before was just a small, explicit one-shot. Since he hadn't drawn NTR before, he wanted to use a few short pieces to practice. But now, he could simply adjust the character setting and expand upon it directly, drawing inspiration from his real-life experiences...
A smile curled up on Rin Ito's lips involuntarily at the thought.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing," Rin Ito chuckled. "I just thought of the plot for my next long-form manga."
"Tell me, how did you think of it?" Mashiro put down her chopsticks and looked directly into Rin Ito's eyes.
"Drawing inspiration from reality, then making slight adaptations," Rin Ito said with a smile. "Adapting from reality, adapting from history, adapting from personal experience—I know many popular manga and novels are adapted from reality and history. Building on a foundation of reality is much simpler than creating a world from scratch."
Mashiro nodded. Ayano had told her the same thing: go to school, engage with the outside world, and then draw an interesting manga. However, Ayano herself didn't know the specifics. Though she was a manga editor, she wasn't an artist, so she didn't understand the boundless creativity of a manga artist's mind and couldn't give Mashiro practical advice.
"Mashiro, you want to draw a shojo (girls') manga, right? I won't presume to teach you drawing technique, but I can help you with the plot. For a manga novice, the first step is imitation, but... you yourself said your editor, Ayano, found your imitations uninteresting, so that path is a dead end."
Rin Ito paused, then spoke again after careful consideration. "Since that's the case... What is learned on paper is always superficial. If you want to draw a certain plot, go and experience that plot, understand the heroine's feelings and mindset, and then adapt it for manga, making it more beautiful and more romantic."
To be honest, it's rumored that only authors who have never been in a relationship can draw truly sweet romance manga. It represents the author's most beautiful imagined romance. Once they actually fall in love and understand what true love is like, they can no longer draw manga that sweet.
But... Mashiro, having lived in a studio since childhood, didn't even have a concept of romance, so she could only gather reference material through practical experience.
Mashiro nodded thoughtfully. "Go on a date with me."
"A date..." Rin Ito checked the time. "It's getting late, and Kaede and Suzu will be back soon... we can't go too far for a date."
"Mhm, nearby is fine."
"Speaking of which... where do you plan to gather reference material, Mashiro?"
Rin Ito knew exactly what to do when dating Kaede or Suzu. But Mashiro... the best date for Mashiro would probably be going back to the room to draw with her. But the 'date' was really just a reference-gathering session. Since Kaede had mentioned last night that he should take Mashiro shopping for daily necessities, he could treat it as an outing to familiarize her with the area.
After quickly finishing the noodles, Rin Ito and Mashiro prepared for their reference-gathering date. Rin Ito hadn't read shojo manga and didn't know what activities a shojo date typically involved... He had seen that joke about the shojo male lead having sixteen-pack abs. That's not even human.
Before starting the date, Rin Ito, wary of Mashiro's unconventional thought process, asked a question to be safe.
"A love hotel, a park at night, a changing room in a lingerie store, a toilet stall, a crowded subway..."
"Wait, wait, wait..." Rin Ito cut Mashiro off before she finished. The more places Mashiro listed, the more familiar they sounded to Rin Ito. "What kind of manga are you gathering material for?"
"An explicit doujinshi."
"...And what happened to the shojo manga? I was starting to wonder when shojo manga got so stimulating."
"Miss Orihime said that explicit doujinshi are manga too, and I should practice with them first since they don't need much of a plot," Mashiro tilted her head. "Is that wrong?"
"The logic is sound." A short explicit doujinshi certainly doesn't require a complex plot; you just get straight to the action.
"However, explicit doujinshi might not help you draw shojo manga, and your refined shojo style doesn't quite match a male-oriented explicit doujinshi. Although female-oriented explicit doujinshi exist, I don't know much about those."
While Rin Ito felt he could easily trick Mashiro into getting pregnant ten times over given her pure innocence, he wasn't a rapist or a kidnapper. He needed to be clear. If Mashiro insisted on doing it after he clarified, Rin Ito would cooperate. Given Mashiro's stubborn personality, if Rin Ito didn't cooperate and she went looking for someone else, the risk of her undergoing a 'transformation' would be trouble.
The world Mashiro was in was not the ordinary world Rin Ito remembered from his past life. It all boiled down to a man's possessiveness. If she was going to offer herself anyway, why let someone else take it? The best course of action was to seize the initiative without force or coercion!
"It doesn't matter, they're all manga," Mashiro said, giving Rin Ito a determined thumbs-up.
"Alright, well, it's getting late, so I'll take you to a love hotel another time. Let's go to the supermarket to buy some things. Have you ever been to a supermarket? It's not a formal date, but... don't you want to go to the supermarket?" Rin Ito asked, seeing Mashiro remain motionless.
"No, it's not that." Mashiro shook her head. She hadn't been to a supermarket before, but scenes of buying things at a supermarket appeared in the shojo manga she referenced. Even if it wasn't one of the settings from the explicit doujinshi last night, it could still count as reference gathering.
"A toy?"
"A toy? What kind of toy?" Mashiro was confused. A toy? Does she need a toy to go out?
"The oval-shaped one, or a vibrating toy like the one you mentioned," Mashiro looked at Rin Ito with the same confusion. "Don't people use it when going out on a date?"
"..." Rin Ito was speechless.
Mashiro had been completely corrupted. She came here to go to school and gather reference material based on her editor Ayano's advice, but on her very first night after landing, she had been entirely led astray.
Rin Ito took a deep breath. "An explicit doujinshi and reality are two different things. It's fine in a doujinshi, but rarely do people do that in real life, and besides, I don't have one." Although Rin Ito wouldn't mind Mashiro using one, he genuinely didn't own one. He had seen the video on Suzu's phone where Kaede was getting off with an oval-shaped adult toy while screaming his name.
Mashiro turned away. Just when Rin Ito thought Mashiro had dropped the topic of the toy, she spoke.
"Let's go buy one together."
Oh, great. My first date with Mashiro is going to be buying an adult toy, is it?
"Kaede seems to have one... If you don't mind, we can borrow hers. If you really want to try one out for reference, or just for doujinshi material, we can pick one out together tonight."
"I don't mind."
Rin Ito nodded, a slight smile curving his lips. Mashiro definitely wouldn't care if Kaede had used it. But Kaede... Hehehe. It's hard to say what she'd do.
...
Did he and Mashiro wake up? Did Mashiro sleep in his bed last night, and did he sleep with her or in Mashiro's room next door?
At school. A drowsy Kaede's mind was filled with Rin Ito and Mashiro. The only thing Kaede was certain of was that Mashiro hadn't been eaten last night.
[DING! Camera System Activated!]
"!?"
The System notification in her head instantly jolted the sleepless Kaede awake. Although the Nurturing Points obtainable through the Camera System had already reached their limit for the day, Kaede decisively opened the Camera System.
A virtual screen appeared before Kaede. On the screen, Mashiro was in the same pose as last night: sitting on a chair with her legs draped over the armrests in an M-pose. Rin Ito was squatting in front of her. However, unlike last night, Mashiro was wearing a skirt and panties, and even her white knee-high socks were on properly.
Kaede pouted. Still drawing?
Wait!!!
Kaede suddenly noticed a problem. The background wasn't Rin Ito's room, and this room was very familiar to Kaede... This is my room, damn it!!!! And Mashiro is sitting on my chair!
Wait... why is the wardrobe open!?
What is that thing in his hand!?
How did he know where my toy was hidden!?
My brain is vibrating AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Kaede's feeling right now was as terrifying as a guy who gets off watching Hentai on the living room TV, falls asleep from exhaustion, and wakes up to find himself covered with a blanket while his relatives are sitting around him.
Kaede forgot to breathe.
Under Kaede's watchful gaze, Rin Ito inserted the pink, oval-shaped toy into Mashiro's panties. After adjusting the position, he slipped the controller into his pocket.
"Let's go, let's go on our date~"
Intimate contact stopped, and the Camera System disconnected.
The trembling Kaede instinctively swallowed.
Not only is she going to take my boyfriend, but she's going to steal my toy too!?