While Kai and Heishi were sweating it out, the meeting room of the Weekly Shonen Jump editorial department was gradually filling with people.
"Togashi," Kazuhiko Torishima began. He was the small-eyed, middle-aged Editor-in-Chief of Jump, seated in the main chair. While the Tezuka Award selection committee had yet to officially begin, he asked with a casual smile, "Level E wrapped up back in early February, and it's been three months now. Any ideas for a new manga?"
"Well..." Yoshihiro Togashi scratched at his hair and picked at his fingernails without even looking up. "We'll see."
He was a national-level manga artist, a creator who had come up during Jump's golden age.
The serialization slot that other artists would kill for was nothing more than a bargaining chip in his hands.
He wasn't the one begging Shueisha. Shueisha was the one that needed him.
After Yu Yu Hakusho ended, Weekly Shonen Jump's circulation had been in steady decline, and by now it had slumped even further.
Jump was desperate for Togashi to create another miracle. The previous Editor-in-Chief, Nobuhiko Horie, had visited him repeatedly and promised a once-a-month serialization schedule, which was what finally led to Level E.
Level E's early performance was excellent, proving that Togashi's reputation as a genius was well deserved. But before the editorial department could celebrate for long, Togashi started doing things his own way.
Level E had a mature art style, a sprawling worldview, characters bursting with personality, and a tight plot. It had every ingredient for a blockbuster. And Togashi turned it into a gag manga.
Gag manga had a ceiling. Level E was Togashi's playground, an experiment. He had no interest in being Jump's savior.
As Jump's decline continued, Horie was transferred to a small magazine as its editor-in-chief, which was basically exile under a polite name.
Even after dealing with someone this willful, Torishima still had to plaster on a smile. He was still hoping Togashi would step up and draw a battle manga that could pull Jump out of its current slump.
"I see. No rush," Torishima said with a nod, his smile perfectly maintained.
That gentle attitude was nothing like the harsh coldness he'd shown before Yu Yu Hakusho ended.
As the Editor-in-Chief appointed in a time of crisis, his job was to keep the whole building from collapsing. Swallowing his pride was nothing. Forcing a smile was the easy part.
The current Jump didn't have the luxury of its former confidence.
At this moment, Torishima wanted nothing more than to discover a new pillar for the magazine.
But manga artists were hard to cultivate. In the end, everything came down to raw talent.
'If only there was a new generation's Togashi or Takehiko Inoue out there somewhere.'
He sighed quietly.
...
"Everyone's here, so let's get started."
Seeing the look on Torishima's face, Masakazu Katsura spoke up.
He was the creator of Video Girl Ai and a talent that Torishima himself had discovered. Without Torishima, he might still be languishing in obscurity, so he'd always carried a sense of gratitude toward the man.
"Yeah." At the mention of the award, Togashi perked up.
Years ago, he had won a Runner-up prize at the Tezuka Award himself. Back then, Osamu Tezuka was still alive and had personally presented him with the medal.
And said to him:
"Please, be sure to draw works that give children dreams."
Togashi had carried those words with him ever since.
They had practically become his motto.
Out of his deep admiration for Tezuka, he rarely showed up for manga industry events. This was one of the few exceptions.
"I'll go first." He pulled out a manuscript. "I think this one is very good. Especially innovative."
What he was holding was none other than Death Note.
...
Time crept by, but the manuscript paper in front of Kai was still blank.
In this state of mind, he really couldn't force himself to concentrate.
"Sigh."
With a breath of frustration, Kai slid his pencil and manuscript paper into his bag.
He looked up at the wall clock.
4:15.
"This is taking forever. I should have given Heishi-san the restaurant's number."
The wind chime above the door jingled. A customer had arrived.
Kai stood up to greet them, but a hand pressed down on his shoulder.
"I got it," Nozaki said. "Just sit tight and wait for the call. Don't miss it."
Without waiting for an answer, he flashed a thumbs up and walked over to the entrance.
"Welcome. How many in your party?"
Kai felt something warm settle in his chest. He turned his eyes toward the landline at the front counter.
The phone rang right on cue.
Everything he'd been working toward came down to this moment, and yet what Kai felt wasn't anxiety.
It was relief.
Even if he failed, he would just have to work harder. That was all there was to it.
"Hello." He walked over, picked up the receiver, and spoke calmly. "This is Ryuka Cuisine. How can I help you?"
"Ryuka?" The person on the other end paused for a beat. "Oh! Right, right! Fujin, is that you? It's Heishi! The Tezuka Award results are in!"
He was practically vibrating with excitement. "Death Note won first place! The Selected award! Congratulations!"
"Oh," Kai said without thinking.
Then it sank in.
"Selected?"
"Yes! That's right, Selected!"
The Tezuka Award had three tiers: Selected, Runner-up, and Honorable Mention.
Gold, silver, and bronze.
The Selected award was the top prize.
Which meant he had already locked in the two-million-yen purse.
The moment that clicked, Kai felt a rush of excitement hit him like a wave.
He'd been scraping by on part-time jobs this whole time and hadn't even managed to save 500,000 yen.
Two million yen was an astronomical number to him.
He could move somewhere better, buy a proper drawing desk, and never have to hunch over a tiny table to draw again.
This was also the very first step of his success.
"Thank you, Heishi-san!"
"What does this have to do with me?" Heishi said. "All I did was submit Death Note to the selection committee. This result is entirely because of your own talent, Fujin."
He piled on the praise, wanting to fill the young man with as much confidence as possible.
After winning the Tezuka Award, the next goal would be the far more difficult challenge of landing a serialization.
He couldn't let him lose his nerve now.
"Make sure you come to Shueisha tomorrow."
With that, he ended the call.
...
The dial tone hummed from the receiver as Kai hurriedly set it back in the cradle.
Having been inexplicably thrown into 1997 Japan and dragged through the worst of what life had to offer, he felt strangely off-balance in the face of actual success.
"Phew."
His heart was pounding, but there was no one to share this with. The feeling was so overwhelming that all Kai could do was let out a long, slow breath.
"Fujin." The usually boisterous Nozaki had crept up beside him at some point and was now asking in a careful, almost timid voice. "How'd it go?"
Kai spoke one word at a time. "Death Note... was Selected."
"Seriously? Yes!" The moment the words landed, Nozaki erupted. He was shouting at the top of his lungs, pumping his fist in the air.
A couple nearby in the middle of their sweet and sour pork looked up from their plates and exchanged bewildered glances.
"You can't say no this time. We're going out drinking. A real, proper night out!"
Ignoring every other person in the restaurant, Nozaki turned to Kai with pure anticipation on his face.
"Of course." Kai patted his chest and grinned. "It's on me."
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