novelraw Chapter 30: Editor-in-charge
Chapter 30: Editor-in-charge
Nohara Hiroshi walked out of the TV Tokyo building that was like a steel behemoth. The afternoon sun, carrying a just-right amount of warmth, shone upon him. He took a deep breath of the Tokyo air, mixed with exhaust and dust, yet felt an unprecedented freedom and comfort.
He didn't go straight home, but detoured to Ginza.
In that Kaiseki cuisine restaurant hidden deep within an alley that he had booked well in advance, he met that figure who made him willing to strive for.
Koyama Misae wore an off-white dress today. Her long hair was tied behind her head with a simple hairband, revealing her smooth forehead and delicate collarbones. She wore no makeup, her face fresh and natural, yet that small face full of collagen seemed to shine brighter than all the neon lights in Ginza combined.
Seeing Nohara Hiroshi push open that elegant wooden door, those large, watery eyes of hers instantly curved into two beautiful crescents.
"Hiroshi-kun!"
Like a joyful little bird, she lunged over, but stopped right at the last step. She merely looked at him unblinkingly with those sparkling eyes, as if she could never look enough.
"Have you waited long?" Nohara Hiroshi reached out and naturally scraped the tip of her perky nose, the touch as warm and smooth as jade.
"Not long, not long!" Misae shook her head, the upward arc of the corners of her mouth unable to be suppressed no matter what, "I just arrived, really!"
Nohara Hiroshi merely smiled, took her hand, and walked into that private room prepared just for the two of them. This restaurant was booked using his first truly large manuscript fee from "YuYu Hakusho". The price was steep, but watching Misae's adorable appearance of wanting to maintain her reserve yet unable to stop her eyes from widening as dishes akin to artworks were served one after another, he felt that everything was worth it.
"Wow... is this top-grade fatty tuna from Oma? It melts in the mouth... it's too delicious!"
"Hiroshi-kun, you have to try this matsutake clear soup, it's so fresh!"
"Is this... is this live-prepared Ise lobster? Its... its antennae are still moving!"
Misae was like a country girl trespassing into the heavenly palace for the first time. Every dish could elicit a small gasp of exclamation from her. That joy originating from the bottom of her heart was better at enhancing one's appetite than any seasoning.
Nohara Hiroshi merely watched her with a smile, occasionally picking up a piece of tempura for her, or picking out the shiitake mushrooms she disliked from the simmered dishes.
"Hiroshi-kun." Misae ate the piece of taro that Nohara Hiroshi had picked the shiitake mushroom off of in small bites. She suddenly raised her head, those eyes made even more watery by the steam of the food carrying a trace of worship and curiosity.
"Mm?" Nohara Hiroshi looked at her.
"On the train today, I heard many people discussing Yamishibai! You really are... so amazing!"
As she spoke towards the end, her voice already carried a trace of imperceptible trembling; that was the pride of sharing in the glory.
"It's alright." Nohara Hiroshi smiled lightly, as if that 3.24% that had stirred up the winds and clouds of the entire television station was merely an inconsequential number: "It's just a beginning."
Standing on the shoulders of giants from his previous life.
The current him, that was simply like a fish in water!
"It's not just 'alright'!" Misae, however, puffed out her cheeks, like a little squirrel protecting its food, retorting somewhat dissatisfiedly: "I heard the housewives next door discussing it! They said they don't even dare go to the company pantry alone at night anymore, afraid a face will suddenly stick out from the copy machine! They also said the director of this animation must definitely be a terrifying devil!"
As she spoke, she couldn't help but let out a "pfft" and laugh, a sly light flashing in those beautiful crescent eyes: "If they knew that 'devil' was the Hiroshi-kun who makes me lovely breakfasts, I wonder what expression they would have?"
"Perhaps they would think I'm a demon wearing human skin." Nohara Hiroshi picked up his sake and took a small sip, the spicy warmth sliding down his throat.
He looked at this girl with a sweet smile before him, and the exhaustion accumulated from consecutive days of hard fighting in his heart seemed to be thoroughly cleansed by this smile.
This was exactly the meaning behind his fighting.
To protect this smile, so she could forever be this carefree, gasping in exclamation over a piece of top-grade fatty tuna, and laughing heartily over a boring joke.
"The Nohara family's Misae." Nohara Hiroshi chuckled lightly: "Perhaps now, it's also time to have a little Shin-chan."
...
After dinner, the two didn't take a car, but strolled hand-in-hand unhurriedly on the streets as the evening lights were just being lit.
Tokyo's night was a black brocade dotted with countless gemstones, luxurious and cold, yet inadvertently revealing the warmth of myriad lit homes.
When they returned to their small apartment located in Kasukabe, the night was already deep.
But as they walked to the door of their home, both of them were stunned.
They saw a figure standing solitary against the wall beside the iron door of the apartment. That person wore a suit completely taken over by wrinkles, his hair somewhat messy, tightly hugging a seemingly weighty briefcase in his arms. His whole person emitted a pitiable aura like a cat that had been drenched by rain and then dried by the wind.
"Tadokoro-san?" Nohara Hiroshi raised an eyebrow in some surprise.
He knew this person.
Hearing the voice, that person raised his head violently. After seeing clearly that it was Nohara Hiroshi, that face written full of anxiety instantly erupted with a light akin to seeing the savior.
"Nohara-sensei! You've finally returned!" He practically lunged over, his voice even carrying a sob: "I called you eight times! Do you know? I couldn't bear waiting at Shueisha anymore! A massive opportunity concerning 'YuYu Hakusho' in 'Shonen Jump'! I had to come find you personally!"
The newcomer was precisely Nohara Hiroshi's editor-in-charge at 'Shonen Jump', Tadokoro Masato.
"Let's talk inside first." Nohara Hiroshi opened the house door somewhat helplessly.
Misae curiously sized up this uninvited guest, then considerately went to the kitchen to brew tea.
The moment he entered the house, Tadokoro Masato could no longer hold it in. He placed his briefcase on the floor, and was just short of performing a dogeza for Nohara Hiroshi.
"Nohara-sensei, this time it's a massive opportunity!" He even appeared more lowly.
But there was no helping it.
Anyone who knew of a manga artist without creative bottlenecks, who right before one's eyes drew half a year's worth of manuscripts of other manga artists in a single day, would be this lowly.
Before his eyes, Nohara Hiroshi was a genuine genius manga artist!
"Tadokoro-san, please calm down." Nohara Hiroshi pressed him onto the sofa and handed over a cup of barley tea Misae had just brewed: "I remember I just submitted a month's worth of manuscripts to you last week, what's wrong?"
"The manuscripts are enough, but... but an opportunity has arrived!" Tadokoro Masato took a huge gulp of tea before catching his breath, speaking with an almost sorrowful tone: "You know our magazine's pillar, Miyamoto-sensei who has drawn 'Soul of the Samurai' for fifteen years, right? He... he suddenly announced yesterday that it's going to end!"
Hearing this, Nohara Hiroshi was also slightly stunned.
'Soul of the Samurai', he knew, was an evergreen tree of this world's "Shonen Jump", holding a status roughly equivalent to 'Kochikame' in his previous life. Although its popularity was no longer at its peak, it was a kind of sentiment for countless readers, a stable cornerstone for the magazine's sales.
"This is... too sudden." Nohara Hiroshi raised his eyebrows.
"Who says it isn't!" Tadokoro Masato had a face devoid of the will to live: "Miyamoto-sensei said he's going to travel around the world to find new inspiration! But with him leaving, one space for our weekly magazine's pillar is vacated! The popularity of the subsequent several serializations is half-dead. When the Editor-in-Chief held a meeting this morning, his face turned green! He ordered that a work capable of stepping up to fill the spot must be found immediately!"
As he spoke, he stared fixedly at Nohara Hiroshi with an incomparably eager, incomparably expectant look.
"Therefore, everyone in the editorial department thought of you! Nohara-sensei! The popularity of your 'YuYu Hakusho' is currently soaring at a miraculous speed! It has charged into the top five of the reader survey rankings for three consecutive weeks! Furthermore, your manuscript drawing speed is so fast, and the quality is so high! Only you, only your 'YuYu Hakusho', can fill the vacancy left by Miyamoto-sensei and become the new pillar of our 'JUMP'! You have to seize this opportunity!"
Misae, who was bringing over a fruit platter to the side, couldn't help but reveal a worried expression on her face upon hearing these words.
She walked over to sit beside Nohara Hiroshi, gently pulled his hem, and softly said: "Hiroshi-kun, but you've already been working so hard at the television station lately... working overtime until so late every day, if you have to draw manga on top of that, your body won't be able to take it."
Her voice was full of heartache she couldn't hide.
However, these words of hers were like a clap of startling thunder striking Tadokoro Masato's head.
"Tele... television station?" The eagerness on Tadokoro Masato's face instantly solidified. He stared blankly at Nohara Hiroshi, then looked at Misae, his voice even changing tune: "Nohara-sensei... you... you went to work at TV Tokyo?"
He felt his world collapse at this moment.
Finished.
This was the only thought in his mind.
His greatest hope, that genius manga artist regarded as a savior by all colleagues in the editorial department, that liver-emperor who could draw over a dozen pages of high-quality manuscripts overnight, unexpectedly... unexpectedly ran off to find a "proper job"?
For an editor who relied on manga artists to put food on the table, this was no less than a bolt from the blue.
Looking at Tadokoro Masato's ashen expression of falling from heaven to hell, Nohara Hiroshi merely chuckled unconcernedly.
"It's okay." He patted Misae's hand, gesturing for her to be at ease, before saying to Tadokoro Masato: "It's just a part-time job, it won't affect drawing manuscripts. Conveniently, I've also had some new concepts recently."
Of course he had concepts.
The entirety of the Dark Tournament arc in "YuYu Hakusho", those hearty and thrilling battles one after another, those vivid and charming characters one after another, had long been staged countlessly in his mind.
For others, this was a creation of blood, sweat, and tears.
To him, this was merely... dictation.
Mm.
Calling it plagiarism was also fine. It wasn't like that old thief could transmigrate over and sue him anyway, right?
"Rea... really?" The extinguished spark in Tadokoro Masato's dimming eyes rekindled into a flame of hope.
"Mm." Nohara Hiroshi nodded, his tone flat, yet carrying an unquestionable power: "Before this week, I'll hand over the manuscript for the next chapter to you, and the subsequent ones as well."
"That's wonderful! That's wonderful!" Tadokoro Masato was so excited he almost stood up to bow again. He looked at Nohara Hiroshi as if looking at a shining deity.
Before leaving, as if remembering something, he curiously asked again: "By the way, Nohara-sensei, if I may be so bold to ask, what is the project you are participating in at TV Tokyo?"
"A horror animation called 'Yamishibai'." Nohara Hiroshi answered casually.
"Yamishibai..." Tadokoro Masato muttered this name, his brows furrowing slightly, "I think I've... heard it somewhere... It seems like I heard colleagues from other departments mention it, saying there's a very popular late-night animation recently..."
He didn't think much about it, merely keeping this name in his mind.
"Then I won't disturb you! Nohara-sensei, have a good rest! I await your manuscripts!"
Hugging his briefcase, holding a heart full of joy and gratitude, Tadokoro Masato practically floated away.
Inside the room, the quiet was restored.
Misae leaned against Nohara Hiroshi's shoulder, smelling that reassuring scent on him, still somewhat worriedly saying: "Hiroshi-kun, is it really no problem? Don't push yourself too hard."
Nohara Hiroshi turned his head to the side and gently planted a kiss on her smooth forehead.
"Rest assured, Misae."
His voice carried a trace of mirth that only he himself understood: "To me, what this world lacks the absolute least of is stories."
"Ah?" Misae tilted her little head in confusion.
She was completely baffled.
"Alright, Misae, it's fine if you don't understand." But the expression on Nohara Hiroshi's face gradually became obscure: "I'll teach you."