Rei knew that the serialization meeting for his manga was being held today, but he also understood that results were never announced on the same day.
The final decision usually came from the senior editors at Hoshimori Publishing Group the following afternoon.
Even so, he couldn't help feeling anxious.
He had confidence in the quality of 5 Centimeters per Second.
But he had far less confidence in the judgment of upper management.
He knew well, from both this world and his previous one, that many excellent works had been buried because someone in power made an irrational decision.
Even Attack on Titan, in his past life, had been rejected by Weekly Shonen Jump before finding its true place elsewhere.
"Anyway… the results will be out tomorrow."
Forcing himself to relax, Rei closed his eyes and went to sleep.
But in his dreams, 5 Centimeters per Second was rejected.
Every time he submitted it to another magazine, it was rejected again. Eventually he gave up drawing entirely and went back to studying, choosing an ordinary life instead…
He woke up unsettled.
Another uneventful school day passed, and when classes ended, someone Rei hadn't seen for two days stood waiting for him at the classroom door.
Miyu peeked inside, spotted him, and waved cheerfully.
A few classmates turned their heads.
Was it true?
The rumor around school was that Rei Kirishima from Class 3 and Miyu Yukishiro from Class 1 were… dating?
Who came to the door to pick up a "friend" every other day? And waited for him after school?
Before Rei could think too much, his homeroom teacher dismissed the class, and he stepped outside.
"Your teacher really loves keeping students late," Miyu joked.
But Rei wasn't in the mood to banter.
"Miyu… did the serialization meeting results come out yet?"
"Yep. My sister texted me at four o'clock. She asked me to bring you to meet her after school. I only saw it once class ended."
She added, "If it hadn't passed, I wouldn't need to bring you. I could've just told you the result. So…"
Her smile deepened under the warm sunset.
"Congratulations, Rei."
Rei opened his mouth, but all he could manage was:
"Thank you."
Miyu had played a huge role in everything.
Without her, he would still be panicking about where to submit his manga. He might've ended up exactly like the nightmare he had last night, wandering from company to company, getting rejected endlessly.
An hour later, Rei followed Miyu back to her family's villa.
This was his second time visiting, and he felt slightly less awkward than before.
And this time…
He saw Misaki smiling for the first time.
She wasn't naturally cold, she simply didn't smile unless she needed to.
But now?
She was smiling at the young mangaka who had helped her regain her footing in the editorial department.
Before today's meeting, her submissions had lost to Takeda Jun twice already.
"Congratulations, Mr. Kirishima," Misaki said warmly. "Your manga passed the serialization meeting. I invited you here to discuss the contract." She handed him a standard publishing agreement.
A contract.
A massive weight lifted from Rei's chest.
He picked it up, though the dense legal text made little sense to him.
Thankfully, Misaki explained.
"In summary, this covers your royalties."
For Sakura-iro Weekly, the payment was calculated per page, ¥7,000 as the baseline rate.
But that was only the base.
If a chapter ranked higher in that week's popularity poll, royalties increased accordingly. Even at the maximum boost, royalties wouldn't exceed three times the baseline.
A typical manga had about twenty pages per chapter, four chapters per month.
So the minimum monthly income for a newly serialized artist in Sakura-iro Weekly was roughly:
¥560,000.
As for Rei's 5 Centimeters per Second, it was already complete, over one hundred pages in total. Even if every chapter ranked at the bottom, he would still earn nearly:
¥700,000 guaranteed.
With that money, Rei would finally have the confidence to deal with his parents' debt.
Even if the court seized his home immediately, he could at least survive.
Of course, Misaki added, royalties from weekly serialization weren't where mangaka made real money.
The real earnings came from tankōbon sales, collected book volumes.
The standard royalty rate was 8%.
If a single volume sold for ¥500, the artist earned ¥40.
This was already the bare minimum allowed by national publishing law.
It was also standard treatment for new artists like Rei.
And merchandise? Anime adaptations?
Those used even more complex revenue formulas.
Misaki gave him a wry smile.
"But don't even think about merchandise until your series becomes popular enough for an anime. Right now, focus on serialization first."
Rei felt overwhelmed.
His legal knowledge was already weak, and Japanese publishing contracts were dense with clauses he barely understood.
Instinctively, he glanced at Miyu beside him.
"Don't look at me," she said, laughing. "My contract is the exact same as yours."
Of course it was.
Publishers, no matter the country, always protected themselves first.New creators were at the bottom of the food chain, and many mangaka only realized the imbalance after their series exploded in popularity.
There were artists whose anime merchandise earned billions of yen… yet they themselves only received a small one-time licensing fee.
But Rei wasn't in a position to worry about all that.
A brand-new mangaka had no leverage.
Accept the terms first, become successful, then renegotiate.
After only a brief moment of thought, Rei took the pen Miyu handed him and began filling in his personal details.
Ten minutes later, Misaki reviewed the contract and nodded.
"In that case, Mr. Kirishima, the partnership between you, me, and Hoshimori Publishing Group officially begins."
Rei exhaled, a quiet breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
He then asked carefully,
"Now that 5 Centimeters per Second passed the serialization meeting… when will it start running in the magazine?"
"Three weeks from now," Misaki replied. "Friday, June 13th. Your manga will debut in that issue of Sakura-iro Weekly."
She continued:
"The cover will feature our two new serializations, 5 Centimeters per Second and Love Like Fireworks. Your series will receive full promotional placement. Also, if possible, we'd like the first five pages of Chapter 1 in full color."
Cover promotion. Color pages.
For a rookie mangaka, that was huge.
"But there's another title debuting at the same time…?" Rei asked.
"That's right," Misaki said, smiling faintly. "Good competition is healthy."
Then she added, "One more thing, Mr. Kirishima, have you decided on a pen name yet? As you know, Miyu publishes under 'Saki.' A pen name helps protect your personal life."
Rei thought briefly.
"Then let's go with Shirogane."
It was the pen name he had used in his previous life, back when he was still struggling.
He couldn't bring his past identity into this world, but letting his old pen name live again felt like a symbolic continuation of the life he once had.
Misaki considered it for a moment.
"Shirogane… it has a nice sound."
She extended her hand.
"Then it's a pleasure to work with you, Mr. Shirogane."
"And," she added, "you haven't eaten yet, have you? Miyu and I haven't either. Why don't we have dinner together? There are still several details about the serialization process that I'd like to discuss with you."
This was Misaki's usual approach.
She often shared meals with her authors or visited them in person.Strong relationships made future editing smoother, less friction during manuscript revisions, less awkwardness when urging deadlines.
After all, it's harder to get angry at someone who buys you dinner.
...
That night, Rei returned home. Now that the results of the serialization meeting were confirmed, all the tension that had been weighing on his heart finally loosened.
Lying on his bed, he found himself imagining all kinds of possibilities, what readers would think, how 5 Centimeters per Second would be received, whether the serialization would spark discussions online, and what would come after.
"Finally… I've taken the first step."
Rei didn't know how long he lay there with that thought before he drifted into sleep.
In his dreams, he returned to his past life.
Late at night, he was watching a movie alone, watching carefully, savoring every detail, while reliving the same sadness he had once felt years ago.
After finishing the film, he immediately looked up the original novel.
The title, the story, the emotions carved into his memory… they all flowed through him again as he slept.
When he opened his eyes the next morning, Rei felt an overwhelming heaviness in his chest.
His expression was strained, and his eyes were faintly red, a residual sadness from the dream, from the story he had recalled so vividly.
Rei had always been the type to immerse himself deeply in fiction.Stories could shake him to his core.
And the title resurfaced clearly in his mind:
Tonight, Even If This Love Vanishes from the World
It was the romance novel by Misaki Ichijo that had once moved him so deeply in his past life, along with its film adaptation.
A girl whose memories vanished every time she fell asleep.
A boy who loved her despite her forgetting him again and again.
The title itself served as the premise, the catalyst, and the tragedy.
There were many similar works, One Week Friends, the anime film A Thousand Years in Hyrule, but none of them left a deeper mark on him than Tonight, Even If This Love Vanishes from the World.
A sharp pang hit Rei's stomach.
"Why am I remembering all these heart-crushing stories first thing in the morning…?"
He groaned internally.
"Come on brain, give me the plot of Gintama or something. Let me draw a gag manga for once."
This wasn't the double comedy he wanted, first tragic romance in 5 Centimeters per Second, now another emotional gut punch.
This new story was just as devastating, sweet at first, then painfully bitter.
But since it only had a live-action film adaptation, not an anime, it never spread widely in the anime community.
Still…
"Hm…" Rei rubbed his forehead and began thinking seriously.
5 Centimeters per Second would only run for five chapters.In one month, it would end.
And now, at the perfect moment, he had remembered a story he could adapt next.
"If I want my second serialization to ride the momentum of the first, I need to start preparing the next manga right now…"
The fact that the original work was a novel didn't matter.
In the manga and anime industry, stories jumped between formats all the time.
If the core narrative was strong, it didn't matter whether it started as a novel, manga, or film.
A good story transcended form.