"A straw hat skull, a wanted poster, a candle... and this!"
A man placed several posters on the table, holding the last one in his hand, and said: "This is the most normal one, what do you think?"
Kato, sitting opposite him, looked. It was a black poster with several people lined up. He couldn't see their specific appearance, only the white outline of their bodies. In fact, this poster only has two colors, white and black, the background is black and the inner content is white.
In addition to the main figures, there is also a white skull with a straw hat at the top, followed by some words: One Piece.
"This is the title...",
Kato asked.
"Yes, the title, but it doesn't matter! The important thing is... Bang!"
The man slammed the poster on the table and coldly said: "Master Mirai-sensei's new work is really piracy! Pirates are those who rob and kill people at sea. What's the point of this theme, manager Kato? Let's play rock, paper, scissors, and whoever loses will order Hinotori Publishing's new magazine, what do you say?"
This is a university. Kato and the man talking are bookstore owners at this school. This school only has two regular bookstores. They were discussing the issue of ordering manga. Students were very enthusiastic about buying manga, and the competition between the two bookstores was very fierce.
After learning that Mirai-sensei would publish a new magazine, the man took the initiative and proposed the idea of one bookstore for each: one bookstore would order Mirai-sensei's new magazine and the other, "Weekly Boutique", without interfering with each other.
"Do you also think Mirai-sensei will lose to Aika?"
Kato asked, slightly surprised. The two hadn't made a decision because they didn't know how to distribute it. Now the content of Mirai-sensei's new magazine had come out. Unexpectedly, the man immediately came up with a childish method like rock, paper, scissors. And Mirai-sensei lost.
"How obvious!" the man nodded: "Weekly Boutique's sales have gone up again this week. Hinotori Publishing's new magazine only has one 'One Piece', so is there any need to compete? Even without competition, we know that Mirai-sensei will definitely lose."
"Come on, don't drag it out, play rock, paper, scissors and see how you do, and no one will complain."
He said that the two bookstores competed with each other, so it would be better to sell them separately. Since Kanto's "The Detective's Son" was published, "Weekly Boutique"'s sales have risen rapidly, and the man can't help but want to monopolize it.
"Since you say so." Kato smiled: "I also want 'Weekly Boutique', then it's up to fate."
He stood up and played rock, paper, scissors with the man. After three best-of-two rounds, the final result was: lost.
"Haha, I can't do anything, old Kato, it seems I'm luckier!"
The man patted Kato on the shoulder and laughed cheerfully: "Weekly Shōnen and Diario Kanto will be bought together as always. But you can no longer order 'Weekly Boutique'. This manga is now under my control."
Kato sighed. He nodded regretfully.
"I understand. Leave the posters to me."
He returned to his bookstore with some. His wife saw his sad face and asked curiously: "Why do you look so bad?"
"We can't subscribe to 'Weekly Boutique' in the future..." Kato placed the posters on the table and sat weakly in the chair next to him: "I just met with boss Takeshi and he made a bet with me. We are responsible for subscribing to Mirai-sensei's new magazine."
"And what about 'Weekly Boutique'? Are they responsible for that magazine? Is that a joke?" His
wife was furious. "Weekly Boutique" sold very well at school, with at least 200 copies sold each week. The two bookstores together sold over 400 copies, and the profits surpassed those of many best-selling novels. How could it disappear just like that!
"It's a deal, there's no going back." Kato weakly shrank his head and argued: "Besides, don't you like Mirai-sensei more? This is also good...".
"I like it, but this...".
His wife sighed, unfolded the poster, frowned, and said: "Mirai-sensei's new manga is about pirates, everyone says it's bad, I don't think the market will be good... Hmm? It looks a little strange...".
She leafed through the poster and suddenly found something strange.
"What's wrong?"
Kato stood up from the chair. His wife has always been shrewd. Could it be that she saw something?
"This pirate story...". His wife continued observing it. She carefully compared the posters several times before slowly saying: "It seems different from the pirates we know."
"Look at these two...". She pointed to the straw hat poster, the skull, and the wanted poster: "Do you find anything in common?"
Kato didn't pay much attention: "It's a straw hat, what's strange about that!"
The man in the wanted poster wears a straw hat, just like the skull.
"Yes, then this character should be the protagonist and the captain." His wife nodded and continued: "I think the skull should be the flag of his pirates... and in this photo, the straw hat boy is standing in the center."
She took out the black and white photo again, and among the people, there was a figure with a straw hat.
"That makes sense, so what? What's strange about it?"
Kato asked.
"Are you stupid? Do ordinary pirates wear straw hats?" His wife said: "Pirates are criminals who specialize in robbing ships at sea or on the coast. They are the symbol of evil. If you tell others that a pirate captain wears a straw hat, they will laugh out loud!"
"And his drawing style doesn't give the impression of being evil." She looked at the protagonist's avatar of "One Piece" and frowned slightly: "Perhaps, like the slogan, this is a passionate manga about friendship and dreams."
"Can you talk about friendship and passion with the word 'thief'?" Kato widened his eyes and reached out to touch his wife's forehead. "Do you trust Mirai-sensei too much and you won't have a high fever?"
"Go to hell, you have a high fever!"
His wife slapped his hand away and snorted: "Before 'Detective Conan' came out, who would have thought that detective manga could be drawn with so much youth? When I told you at first, you refused to believe it and buy it, so don't use ordinary people's standards to measure Mirai-sensei's mindset."
Kato was stunned and surprised: "Do you mean that 'One Piece' will be as surprising as 'Detective Conan'?"
"It's possible...". His wife nodded and slowly said: "In any case, increase the order and give it a try...".
Time flew by. On May 8th,
Amidst the curiosity of many readers and the mockery of the media, Hinotori Publishing launched a new magazine, "Mirai Manga", and a new manga, "One Piece".
From that day on, two seemingly identical things began to emerge, and the first rival was "Weekly Boutique".
- - - - - - - - -
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