Time passed, and after tonight ended, Rei shifted all his attention to the upcoming Hikaru no Go manga.
The art in the original series was great, but the character designs were undeniably outdated.
If Rei was going to create Hikaru no Go, he would have to refresh the character visuals and give them a more modern, polished look.
Of course, the core plot wouldn't change, only small upgrades and adjustments in detail.
The real difficulty was in the setting. Transplanted into this world, the Go system, pro rankings, and tournament formats all had to match this world's Go environment, not the one from Rei's previous life.
Fortunately, the old live-action drama version gave him a decent structural reference point. As memories resurfaced day by day, the adaptation became easier.
The only issue was length. The original story was long. Given how unpredictable his memory recall could be, Rei absolutely couldn't serialise something stretching three to five years.
So he planned to increase the page count per chapter and omit bloated, unnecessary arcs, especially everything after Sai's disappearance.
The adaptation would focus strictly on the emotional and competitive core.
His drawing speed was absurdly fast anyway, so none of this was a problem.
Early December.
Rei finally met the Go consultant he had been waiting for at the Yukishiro sisters' home.
A woman with black-rimmed glasses, mid-twenties, sat on the living-room sofa. She wasn't on the sisters' level of beauty, but among ordinary people she would easily stand out as elegant and refined.
When Rei entered, she rose and greeted him politely.
"Hello. I'm Shirakawa Rika."
She extended her hand with a calm smile.
"You're Shirogane-sensei, yes?"
"Hello, I'm Shirogane. My real name is Rei."
Rika nodded, unsurprised.
Misaki had already explained everything to her the night before, the "beautiful high school girl mangaka" online rumors, Rei's real identity, and the confidentiality around it.
She didn't know Misaki personally.
But Misaki's mother had long-standing ties with Rika's uncle, the Vice President of the Go Association.
The association had been struggling with stagnation for years.
When Misaki reached out for a consultant, Rika's uncle immediately agreed. Supporting a rising manga artist attempting a Go-themed work was a golden PR opportunity.
Whether the manga became a hit or not, the association would benefit from visibility and cultural momentum.
"So, Rei, did you bring the storyboards?" Misaki asked.
It had been two weeks since Rei declared he would create a Go manga.
His reason for needing a professional was simple: the Go matches had to be real.
The original story spanned elementary school, middle school, and the pro world. The match difficulty had to reflect each stage.
For that, Rei needed an expert to design game records tied precisely to the plot.
Rei responded by pulling a thick stack of manuscript paper from his bag.
Misaki frowned at the volume. Then she casually flipped through the pages…
Her eyes froze.
These weren't rough thumbnails.
These were near-finished original manuscripts, inked, toned, panelled.
"Rei… you, what is all this?"
"I had a lot of free time these past two weeks," Rei said lightly.
"So I drew a bit more than planned."
He gently pushed the heavy stack toward Misaki and Rika.
"Please check the storyline first."
Misaki and Rika exchanged a brief glance, then stopped talking entirely. Both leaned in and focused on the stack of original manuscript pages Rei had placed on the table.
Although Rika was a professional Go player, she'd grown up in a country overflowing with manga culture.
Reading manga was second nature to her.
But when she opened to the first page, her expression changed immediately.
Maple leaves drifting in the wind. Running water, sunlight, a wooden bridge.
A boy and a girl sprinting across it together.
A simple slice-of-life scene… yet the sense of atmosphere was so strong it felt cinematic.
Rika slowly lifted her eyes toward Rei.
For a moment, only one word echoed in her mind:
Amazing.
But visuals were one thing. The plot was the true backbone of every manga.
And the plot, from the very first few pages, overturned every assumption Misaki and Rika had brought with them.
They thought Rei's Go manga would be like most competitive titles, A talented protagonist starts as a beginner, trains hard, overcomes rivals, and rises to the top.
But instead...
A clueless elementary school boy, Hikaru, discovers an old Go board with faint stains in his grandfather's storage room.
And because of his strange sensitivity, he becomes possessed by the ghost of Sai, an ancient Go sage.
Rei had seamlessly adjusted the lore.
Sai wasn't from Heian-era Japan but from a chaotic historical period in this world. A time where even royal names were lost to history, so the backstory felt perfectly natural.
But then the story accelerated.
Hikaru, who couldn't even tell the black stones from the white ones, was suddenly forced to deal with this passionate Go-obsessed ghost who'd been waiting a thousand years for a chance to chase "The Hand of God."
A soul that refused to pass on because of its love for the board.
An anime fan turned Go novice… dragged into a world he never asked for.
At first, Rika's reading attitude was perfunctory.
A high school kid drawing a Go manga?
Probably half-baked. Probably shallow. Probably something she would skim politely but forget instantly.
She expected nothing.
But a few pages in… she unconsciously leaned forward.
Then more.
And more.
By the tenth page, she was no longer a consultant reviewing a manuscript.
She was a reader, completely absorbed.
Misaki had fallen silent as well. Her eyes didn't leave the pages.
In Rei's version, the fated meeting between Hikaru and Akira was even more explosive than the original.
The dramatic tension, the way Rei framed their encounter, the subtle expressions, everything was crafted with such flair that Misaki felt her chest tighten.
Rei had completely removed the actual Go diagrams in these draft chapters.
Every match was represented by a white page, or a fade-to-white panel.
He saved the game-record creation for Rika later, the job she had been recruited for.
But that was the shocking part.
Misaki didn't know a single Go rule.
She couldn't follow a game record even if it were printed right in front of her.
Yet, she could tell who was winning.
Who was losing.
What "tsuke" or "hane" meant emotionally, even if she didn't know the technical definition.
She understood the tension of a teaching game, the thrill of a pro match, simply from the characters' reactions and pacing.
And the moment she finished the first chapter…
A strong, lingering sense of not wanting it to end hit her.
It made her breath catch.
She didn't understand Go. The page didn't even show the stones.And still, she was hooked.
She wanted to read chapter two, wanted to learn what Go was, wanted to understand the rules.
She turned toward Rei, stunned.
Rika gently closed the manuscript. Her fingers tightened around the pages.
'This is genius.'