[Anime Crossover] Becoming Mangaka in Anime World

Monday morning.

"It's time for school!"

Akifumi Mugiho woke up, glanced at the time, and sighed, his emotions mixed.

At first, when he regained memories of his past life, he was a bit excited about going back to school.

But after enjoying a few days off, that initial excitement had long disappeared.

It was like starting a novel. At first, you're full of energy and can write hundreds of words in no time. But after writing tens or even hundreds of thousands of words, it becomes a chore.

He shook off the thoughts, quickly washed up, got dressed, and left the house.

Unlike most time-travelers, who end up orphaned with no siblings and no property, Akifumi Mugiho's parents were still alive, he didn't have a younger sister, and they owned the apartment they were living in.

"I wonder where those two are now..."

His father, Akifumi Ye, and mother, Akifumi Nakui, were both archaeology professors at a university in Kanagawa.

As for why they worked in Kanagawa but lived in Tokyo, that story went back more than a decade, when Akifumi Mugiho was just born.

The details weren't too important, so let's skip over them.

To summarize, they worked in Tokyo at the time, and it wasn't until Akifumi Mugiho was six that they moved to Kanagawa.

Though Kanagawa was an important region in Japan, it still lagged behind Tokyo when it came to educational resources.

Plus, since his parents often traveled with students for research, even when he was in Kanagawa, it didn't make much difference.

So, Akifumi Mugiho got used to living alone from a young age.

By the time he hit junior high, he just moved back to Tokyo.

"The Total is 360 yen."

Akifumi Mugiho snapped out of his thoughts and pulled out a 1,000-yen bill from his wallet.

"Thank you, come again!"

The cashier smiled brightly as she handed over his change, and Akifumi Mugiho grabbed the reheated rice balls and walked out of the convenience store.

In Japan, there are no places to buy breakfast.

Unless you make your own, the only option to fill your stomach is the convenience store.

Not to mention his past life—living alone for so long had taught him how to cook.

He wasn't a master chef, but it was enough to get by.

Yesterday, his fridge was empty, and he hadn't had time to restock, so he had to resort to this wasteful choice.

Yes, wasteful!

"Five rice balls, averaging 72 yen each."

"Ingredients: glutinous rice, shredded seaweed, carrot bits, and lettuce fragments."

If you convert it to the raw ingredients, he could have made twelve rice balls of the same size.

If he ate four rice balls every morning, that'd cover three days of breakfast!

"Damn it!"

The more he thought about it, the worse the rice balls tasted.

Why was he fixating on something so small?

Well, of course, it was because he was out of money!

At school, a decent grilled meat lunch set cost 500 yen, so for a month, that would total 15,000 yen.

But with the usual four weekends and eight holidays, he'd only need about 11,000 yen.

If he cooked for himself, he was confident he could keep his total daily food expenses under 400 yen!

With seasonings like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, his monthly food costs would be around 15,000 yen.

Both his parents were university professors. Even though archaeology is a niche field, their income wasn't bad.

Not to mention, they were fairly well-known in the academic world.

As their son, Akifumi Mugiho's living expenses were well-supported.

He got a generous allowance of 70,000 yen a month!

For a high school sophomore, that's more than enough, especially since he didn't have to pay rent.

Even without trying to save money, he could still live comfortably in Tokyo.

But here's the problem: it was only mid-April, and his pockets were already empty.

"Even if I wanted that limited-edition figure of my favorite character, I should at least think about my financial situation!"

He tossed the wrapper into a nearby trash can and sighed deeply.

Being friends with someone like Aki Rensuke, the ultimate otaku, didn't require much imagination to figure out the original body's interests.

Thanks to this, even though the original was good-looking and had excellent grades, he had very few friends.

Even though anime was a major part of Japan's economy, being an open otaku still made him a target for some discrimination.

Though, he did receive a few love letters.

Unfortunately, back then, all he cared about was his "waifu," so he just tossed the letters without a second thought.

"At least check who it's from first... and see if they're attractive!"

Akifumi Mugiho shook his head. He realized he was still too young back then.

"I wonder when I'll get any news about the manga…"

"I need to finish the next two chapters when I get home."

His goal was to have at least three chapters ready for serialization in the magazine. After all, anything could happen during serialization, so it was always best to have a buffer.

That was the publisher's rule.

Besides...

"The high-energy moments in Madoka Magica only start in the third chapter!"

Thinking of the scenes in his mind, Akifumi Mugiho smiled.

As for being broke and wondering how to survive for the next two weeks...

Well, he could either borrow some money from a friend or ask his parents for a little extra.

Anyway, working a part-time job was out of the question.

He wasn't desperate yet, so there was no need to make things harder on himself.

...

When Akifumi Mugiho arrived at class, there were still more than 10 minutes before class started.

Being an invisible presence in the class, no one paid much attention to him.

Except...

"I thought you got into car accident last week?"