Early in the morning, Yukina Shirosawa woke up unusually early.
Having been unemployed for half a month, she was still in the "exciting freedom" phase of unemployment, far from the anxiety stage.
As a hardcore manga addict, she now went to bed early, woke up early, and spent her mornings organizing the big magazines she'd bought yesterday, Hoshimori Comic, Monogatari Comic, and a few others, lining them neatly on her bookshelf.
A single magazine serialized dozens of manga. But realistically, very few people read all of them.
Most readers just picked a few favorites, read those, then tossed the magazine aside.
Today…
Yukina blinked.
Oh right, Shirogane-sensei's new work would have its second chapter published today.
The author of Five Centimeters per Second. Her eyes brightened instantly.
Finishing her morning routine in record time, she headed straight to the nearest bookstore.
This week's Ametsukage Weekly cover was a collage of the magazine's serialized protagonists. The heroine of Tonight, Even If This Love Vanishes from the World, Māori Hino, was positioned on the left side of the cover, quietly holding a sticky note in her hand.
Just from the character's placement, Yukina could roughly estimate the series' current popularity.
Mid-range. Probably around the top ten.
"I hope one day Shirogane-sensei's heroine will stand in the center of the cover," she whispered.
Taking a copy to the cashier, she headed home, peeled off the plastic seal, and tried recalling last week's chapter.
"Right, the male lead, Tōru Kamiya, was supposed to wait in the classroom after school for Hino. Will his confession succeed?"
She flipped to the opening page.
As always, Shirogane-sensei's gorgeous art made her eyes sparkle.
The scene began with Tōru running into Izumi in the corridor.
Thanks to a few troublemaking delinquents, the confession video had spread across the entire school.
And in the video, Hinoi's ambiguous reaction, neither rejecting nor accepting him, was shocking enough.
Izumi, knowing Hino's amnesia, was understandably panicked.
[Are you two really planning to date?]
[Do you even know Hino? Was it love at first sight?]
[If you're just fooling around, I suggest you stop now.]
Izumi stared Tōru down aggressively.
Tōru dodged the questions, pretending class was about to start.After all, he couldn't reveal the real reason, that, he confessed to help a bullied friend under the pressure of those delinquents.
Soon, it was after school.
Hino arrived, exactly as promised, dressed neatly, standing at Tōru's classroom door.
Both of them were awkward. Both nervous.
"So… why did Hino accept such an abrupt confession?" Yukina wondered.
But after thinking for a moment, the answer became clear.
A girl who wakes up every day having forgotten the day before, a girl forced to relearn her life every single morning, she must be living in quiet despair.
Every day, she woke hours early to confront the same truth, she was sick.
She had memory loss. And her identity, the class she was in, her friends, her teacher, had to be reconstructed from her diary.
To avoid being exposed or taken advantage of, Hino avoided social interaction, giving the impression she was simply aloof or uninterested in others.
In reality, only three people knew her secret:
Her mother. Her father. And Izumi Wataya.
At such a time, a boy suddenly confessed to her.
"Others might not understand, but if it were me, I'd accept too," Yukina whispered.
"This might be the only chance for romance in her entire life. And Tōru seems like a genuinely kind boy. Someone who stands up for his friend, how could he be written as a scumbag later?"
In the manga, Hino approached Tōru with a small smile.
Today's Hino meeting him for the first time in her life, even though yesterday's Hino already met him once.
Because yesterday's Hino no longer existed.
Her memory erased overnight.
She sat down opposite Tōru.
[Sorry to bother you.]
She began to speak softly.
And very quickly, she brought up the real issue.
[About the matter of us dating, I have something to discuss with you.]
Tōru stiffened.
Hino noticed and smiled.
[Are you regretting it?]
The following conversation showed Tōru explaining the real reason behind his confession, and apologizing.
Yukina's heart tightened.
Hino wasn't angry. Instead, she admired his courage in standing up for his friend.
[So?]
[So what?]
[You don't want to? To date, I mean.]
[And you? Why did you agree to my confession?]
[Me? Hmm… why indeed?]
A loneliness flashed across Hino's expression.
Then she smiled.
[For now, let's pretend to be a couple.]
[The confession video is already spreading. If we pretend to date, those bullies won't bother your friend again, right?]
"Exactly," Tōru said after a pause.
Yukina felt a gentle smile form on her lips.
'Yes. Why complicate romance manga?'
Just create the relationship, and let the feelings grow.
Shirogane-sensei really understood romance.
Then Hino raised a finger.
[Let's follow three rules for our fake relationship.]
[First: before the end of the school day, we don't speak to each other.]
[Second: if we text, keep messages short and simple.]
[Third: we absolutely cannot fall in love with each other.]
The panel zoomed in on Hino and Tōru's faces.
Tōru's clear eyes, Hino's gentle smile.
A composition bursting with youth.
Thump.
Yukina curled up with her manga, hugging it tightly.
She had fallen in love already.
'A flag. This is 100% a flag.'
"What do you mean 'we cannot fall in love'?" Yukina whispered.
"That's literally impossible."
As for why Hino proposed these rules, Tōru didn't ask, and Yukina didn't want to think about it.
On the next page, Tōru nodded firmly.
"New manga artists really do have incredible brains! Only someone fresh like this could come up with such a plot. Directly establishing the romantic relationship in the second chapter and then cultivating feelings afterward, it's a million times better than those romance series where you wait a hundred chapters for a confession, and even after two years of serialization, the leads haven't kissed!"
Yukina Shirosawa took a deep breath and continued reading.
What followed was a montage of daily moments.
Every day after school, Māori Hino would meet Tōru Kamiya, notebook in hand.
The scenes shifted rhythmically: The schoolyard under the sunset.
The campus glistening after the rain.
Her asking him about blood type.
Favorite authors.
Admired person.
Family situation, and countless tiny details.
It looked almost identical to an ordinary after-school couple building their relationship, bit by bit.
At school they never spoke except after dismissal.
Even text messages followed the rules strictly, if a reply could be settled with just "Understood," it would never be replaced by something longer like "I know."
The first two rules were being upheld perfectly.
"What about the third one?" Yukina murmured, a gentle auntie-like smile creeping across her face.
Then came their first date-like outing.
On a Sunday afternoon, Hino invited Tōru out.
She brought Izumi along as well, and the three had their first proper meet-up.
Here, Izumi's impression of Tōru shifted, because the two shared a love for a niche literary author.
The manga mentioned this author, Nishikawa, twice.
Yukina paused.
"This writer with the pen name Nishikawa. This is definitely foreshadowing."
The second chapter consisted mostly of daily life scenes, but Yukina read every frame with intense focus.
Romance manga worked like that, no superpowers, no battles, no dramatic betrayals.
Just pure emotion.
And most importantly, there wasn't a single forced love rival in sight. Everything was pure love, nothing more.
Even if Hino and Tōru didn't openly acknowledge it, to Yukina, this was already pure, unmistakable romance.
"Agh, Shirogane-sensei, you're so good at romance manga. So why did Five Centimeters per Second have that ending? If Akari hadn't left in chapter five, maybe that manga wouldn't have ended even now!"
Her mind wandered for a moment, thinking of Shirogane-sensei's previous work.
The trio in the manga enjoyed a peaceful Sunday.
On a balcony, they watched the distant sunset together.
Hino, smiling contentedly, kept snapping photos of the golden sky, the streets below, the fading light…
"You're taking too many pictures," Tōru said with a smile, watching her side profile.
"Instead of taking photos, why not just burn it into your eyes?"
"If I don't take photos," Hino whispered, "I'll forget everything."
Izumi's expression flickered with aching tenderness.
Tōru didn't notice any of this.
Three small consecutive panels pulled Yukina back into reality.
She remembered Chapter 1 Hino, the Hino who had already forgotten that Tōru ever existed.
She had also forgotten this exact sunset, this fleeting, irreplaceable moment she shared with Tōru and Izumi.
The sweeter the scene became, the sharper Yukina's heart squeezed.
Tomorrow, Hino would forget this moment.
Sure, she had her phone photos. But if she woke up tomorrow with a blank memory, would the photos mean the same?
Could a handful of diary words truly convey the feelings of this exact moment?
If she had even a tiny seed of affection for Tōru right now, tomorrow's Hino would lose every trace of it.
Yukina felt dizzy.
"No, no, don't spiral. Trust Shirogane-sensei, Hino's condition improves later, right? No matter why Izumi steals and rewrites the diary later, once Hino recovers, she'll definitely find Tōru again! And the Hino who doesn't forget, she'll remember all of this. She has to."
This thought steadied her, but only for a moment.
Because the very next page was the final page of Chapter 2.
Hino stood beneath the lingering sunset, gazing toward the horizon with quiet longing.
Her inner monologue appeared.
"To me… my yesterday's self does not exist."
Yukina's throat tightened.
Hino could not remember her past, nor could she see her future.
The photos she took were only for tomorrow's Hino, for the self who would wake up and know nothing.
But this Hino, the Hino who loved the sunset, who enjoyed the company of two precious people, would disappear by the time she fell asleep.
Leaving no trace in the world.
"Chapter 2- End."
Yukina stared at the final page. The whole chapter had been warm, gentle, beautiful.
Which only made the ending so unbearably sad.
But only in the last few pages, just a handful of lines, Yukina was jolted awake from her beautiful dream.
"What kind of insane setting is this? Shirogane-sensei, don't you feel sad when you write something like this?"
"How can someone draw such warm, gentle artwork but write a plot that rips your heart out?"
She flopped back on her bed, defeated.
Fortunately, it was only chapter two.
After a few minutes, her emotions settled, replaced by a rising anticipation.
'Hurry up, 'she thought. 'Quickly finish the past story through Izumi's diary. Then I want to see Hino meet Tōru again after she recovers, and fall in love all over again.'
Closing the chapter, Yukina turned to the back of the magazine.
Beside the price tag was a tear-off slip with a QR code. After scanning it, a voting page instantly opened.
Sixteen titles were listed top to bottom.
Each QR code allowed voting from one device, to prevent cheating.Each reader could vote for up to five series, minimum one.
But even with such convenience, over 90% of readers still couldn't be bothered.
Yukina, however, was different. Chapter two of Tonight had genuinely touched her.
Without hesitation, she tapped the longest title, "Tonight, Even If This Love Disappears from the World", then selected "Vote."
"Shirogane-sensei, I'm counting on you. Don't disappoint me," she murmured.
"If you keep this up, the print volumes are going to sell like crazy."
Meanwhile, on Weekly's Official Forum
Discussions about Tonight were erupting everywhere.
After all, manga fans are simple creatures; they can immediately tell when something touches the heart.
If Yukina was teary-eyed after chapter two, others were the same.
Suzuka_Tea: "I was wrong. Last week I said Tōru might be a scumbag. I apologize. Shirogane-sensei, please don't make him one. He's perfect. Please let him stay gentle and date Hino forever."
PeachSoda: "So Izumi is the villain? Otherwise why would she forge the diary and hide the real one?"
GraySnow: "There has to be a reason, right? Maybe some tragic circumstance?"
StoryWeaver: "Ugh, please don't leave plot holes. Anyone can create a mysterious setup, only real talent can fill it properly."
Rin_Illustrator: "I didn't say a single word this entire chapter. Same feeling I got when the MCs parted at the station in Five Centimeters. Shirogane-sensei is crazy."
MoonlitLion: "Imagine loving someone, and every morning forgetting the moment you fell for them. I would go insane."
MintLeaf: "Hino is too strong. Every day she wakes up, faces all of this, and pretends to be normal at school. In most romance manga I hate the protagonists for being stupid, but here? I can't criticize anyone."
LonelyGuy92: "Are there any other guys reading this?? The whole forum is like 98% girls. I'm embarrassed."
Reply - SilverFox: "Yes. Yes, there are. And I love this manga more than most of you."
Marshmallow: "Everyone, vote for Tonight! New manga always start slow. Don't let it get canceled!"
On the forum, Shirogane's new and old fans gathered, and many loyal fans had already started forming fan groups, calling on everyone to vote in an organized manner.
Of course, fan groups for other manga were also doing the same. The competition had already begun the moment the manga was released. And by evening, after a day's accumulation, fans of various manga had begun their daily forum squabbles and mutual attacks, turning the entire forum into chaos. However, these were precisely the things the publisher hoped to see.
7 PM- At the Yukishiro Residence
Rei and Miyu arrived together.
Misaki, having finished Friday's work, was already waiting.
Rei didn't waste time; reviewing storyboards after work was unpaid overtime for her, and he wouldn't push his luck.
He handed over the Chapter 8 storyboard, then sat quietly on the sofa.
He knew exactly what was coming.
And sure enough, ten minutes later, both Misaki and Miyu looked up from the papers, their eyes sharp enough to cut steel.
"Rei," Misaki said, voice dangerously calm, "what kind of insane plot development is this?"
"A-are you crazy?!" Miyu burst out.
"Are you really not afraid the readers are going to tear you apart?!"
Rei shrugged lightly.
"No, this chapter explains the foreshadowing from chapter one."
He smiled.
"And as long as it doesn't violate morality or national laws, I'm drawing chapter eight exactly like this."