Since the official publication of "Fate/stay night," time had unknowingly passed to the fourth day, and this week's shōsei results were set to come out today.
"Hum hum hum~ Hum hum hum~..."
Inside the studio, Akira sat at his workbench, humming an unknown tune while drawing something on paper with a pen.
The three assistants glanced at each other.
They had originally thought Akira might be a bit nervous today, but they didn't expect him to appear so relaxed.
As expected of Mochizuki-sensei.
Seeing this, Hayato asked curiously:
"Today seems to be the day the shōsei results come out, right? Isn't Mochizuki-sensei concerned?"
Hearing him speak, Akira temporarily stopped what he was doing and smiled:
"It's impossible to say I'm not concerned, but being concerned won't change the outcome, will it?"
"Besides, my requirements for the shōsei results aren't high; as long as it's in the top ten, it's fine."
"Huh? Top ten..."
The three of them looked at each other in dismay upon hearing this.
This wasn't just a low requirement—it was way too low!
Most readers are very forgiving toward a new work that has just started serialization; as long as the overall quality isn't too bad, most will cast a vote for the new work during the polling.
Therefore, for the shōsei ranking of the first chapter of a new work, getting into the top five is normal, and getting into the top three is not surprising. Even getting first place can be considered an ideal situation.
Conversely, if the shōsei ranking for the first chapter of a new work doesn't even make the top five, then the situation is already a bit dangerous.
At this time, Daisuke smiled and said:
"But I also think there's no need to worry too much. After all, I think everyone has seen the quality of 'Fate/stay night' for themselves."
Indeed.
Hayato and Shota nodded in agreement.
Having seen the subsequent plot of FSN, they naturally had immense confidence in the work.
Even if the rankings for the first few chapters were not ideal, they believed that once chapter 5 arrived, everything would get better!
Saber, Artoria...
Speaking of which, they couldn't help but recall the double-page spread and close-up at the end of chapter 5, which vividly showcased the beauty, temperament, and expression of the beautiful girl Servant, Saber, making it unforgettable even now.
Perhaps from that moment on, they had already become die-hard fans of Mochizuki-sensei.
In short, thanks to their trust in Akira and Akira's own relaxed attitude, the atmosphere in the studio didn't become tense because of the shōsei ranking.
Just then, listening to the melody Akira kept humming, Shota asked curiously:
"Mochizuki-sensei, what's the name of the song you're humming? It sounds quite nice."
More importantly, not only did it sound good, but he didn't seem to have heard this melody anywhere else before.
It must be a relatively niche piece of work.
"Really? Thanks for the compliment."
Akira smiled and said:
"This song is called... er..."
Halfway through, he suddenly realized a problem and paused for a moment.
Then, under their puzzled gazes, he smiled somewhat embarrassedly:
"Sorry, since the song title involves spoilers, I won't reveal it for now."
The song he had been humming was "Glory of the Knight King," an insert song composed by Kenji Kawai for the 2006 FSN anime.
Although it was an insert song for the anime, because the song's atmosphere matched Artoria so perfectly, it was now basically used as Artoria's character song.
And his drawing on the paper just now was actually an attempt to record the melody of this song as a musical score—in other words, transcribing by ear.
However, to outsiders, it looked like he was composing his own music.
After learning the electronic keyboard from Rin for a while and asking her some musical questions, he found that composing didn't seem as difficult as he had imagined.
In the simplest case, as long as you record a melody you hum at random and repeat it a few times to make it complete, it can be considered creating a piece of music.
Of course, this was basically just at the level of self-entertainment.
But if you wanted to create a good-sounding piece, the difficulty and complexity were on a whole different level.
Things like determining the theme and emotion, building the structure, creating melodic motifs, designing chords, arranging, and so on...
But none of that concerned him; he was just transcribing.
The song "Glory of the Knight King" wasn't actually that complex overall, but for a transcription novice like him, it was still a bit difficult.
He was currently only trying to transcribe the main melody first; as for the details, he would have to take it slow.
Back to the topic.
"Thanks for the compliment... the title involves spoilers..."
Hearing his words, the three assistants were all stunned for a moment, and a very terrifying thought popped into their heads!
After glancing at each other, Hayato asked cautiously:
"Mochizuki-sensei... you wouldn't happen to be writing your own songs, would you?"
"Well..."
Hearing this, he scratched his cheek and nodded with a forced smile:
"You could say that."
There was no helping it; he couldn't exactly say he was transcribing a score from his past life in his head, could he?
Writing songs?
For real...?
Seeing Akira nod in admission, although the three of them found it somewhat unbelievable, they surprisingly didn't seem to feel that much shock.
Or rather, they had become somewhat numb.
Mochizuki-sensei was not only young and handsome, with exquisite drawing skills and a natural talent for drawing manga, but now he could even write his own songs...
They were all clearly human, so why did they feel like they weren't even the same species as him?
God is way too biased!
"Well, anyway, that's how it is."
Taking in their reactions, Akira gave a couple of sheepish laughs and said:
"This song isn't finished yet. If you're interested, I'll let you hear it once it's completed."
Akira's words pulled them back to reality.
Setting aside their envy, jealousy, and hate for a moment, they were naturally very interested in the song Akira was creating.
And judging from his words, the content of this song should have a strong connection to the manga, perhaps something like a theme song for it.
A song personally created by a manga author for their own manga...
That sounds really interesting!
So, Daisuke was the first to speak up with a smile:
"Then I'll be looking forward to Mochizuki-sensei's musical work."
"Me too!" x2
Hayato and Shota also followed suit.
"Then please look forward to it."
Akira smiled, but just then, his phone rang; it was a call from Hisashi.
At this time, his purpose for calling was naturally self-evident.
At the same time, the three assistants also immediately realized something; although they had been saying they were confident, they now swallowed hard in nervousness.
It's coming—the decisive ranking.
Akira also unconsciously became a bit nervous, so after calming himself down slightly, he answered the phone.
The moment he answered, Hisashi's voice, filled with a bit of excitement and joy, immediately came from the other end:
"The shōsei rankings are out!"
" 'Fate/stay night' is number one!"