Akira had some impression of 『JumpFesta』, but not much.
But that wasn't important.
What was important was the invitation for the author interview right now.
This was indeed an unexpected event he hadn't anticipated, but for him personally, there didn't seem to be much need to deliberate.
"I have no problem with it."
He agreed immediately.
If anything, he also held quite a bit of anticipation for this author interview.
Oda, huh.
From the time he started drawing manga until now, he had been working solo for so long; he could finally meet a living Manga Artist.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Seeing Akira agree so readily, Hisashi was instantly relieved.
Although social relationships between Manga Artists are generally simple and pure, they were, after all, serializing in the same magazine, so there was an unavoidable competitive relationship between them.
Because of this, instances of hostility toward other serializing Manga Artists, while certainly not common, were a fairly routine phenomenon in the industry.
If Akira held a similar attitude toward Eiichiro Oda, it would have been quite difficult to handle.
Fortunately, he didn't.
"So, regarding the interview, is there anything I need to prepare on my end?"
Hearing Akira's question, Hisashi snapped back to his senses and smiled, "You don't need to worry too much about that. We will prepare the time and general flow of the interview, including some of the questions that will be asked, in advance."
"Besides that, you can also talk freely within an appropriate range, though the final content might be slightly controlled through editing."
"In short, don't feel too much pressure."
"I understand."
Seeing Hisashi say this, Akira didn't ask further, just considering another matter—since they could talk freely, what questions could he ask?
Hmm...
Thinking carefully, there seemed to be quite a lot.
A few more days passed, and the time for the author interview was set; it wouldn't start until the end of November.
The reason it had to be so far off was that Eiichiro Oda couldn't quite spare much time during his usual schedule due to the pressure of serialization.
After all, not everyone could draw as fast as he did.
And just as Hisashi had said before, Shonen Jump did indeed plan to exceptionally merge another issue number in early December, specifically taking a week off to hold 『JumpFesta』.
By then, the schedule would be more flexible.
As for this period, things naturally continued as usual.
But that wasn't entirely true.
On November 2nd, Issue 48 of Weekly Shonen Jump was released, and Chapter 17 of Fate/stay night was serialized along with it.
In this chapter, the battle between Shirou and Tohsaka Rin broke out.
More accurately, Shirou was single-mindedly trying to avoid the fight, while Tohsaka Rin relentlessly pursued him with attacks.
Thus, the two of them staged a chase scene inside the school building.
Although Tohsaka Rin's attacks during the battle looked very exaggerated, because their dialogue carried a cheerful vibe, the overall atmosphere of the battle wasn't tense.
However, here, Shirou, as the protagonist, unexpectedly showed off some decent skills.
Or rather, Shirou's skills had always been quite good, but since his previous opponents were all Servants, it made him appear rather pathetic in combat.
Before the battle between the two could reach a conclusion, it was interrupted by a sudden scream.
Ignoring everything else, Shirou immediately rushed toward the source of the sound; seeing this, Tohsaka Rin could only helplessly give up the fight for the moment and follow him.
In the next scene, the two found a female student collapsed on the ground in the corridor connecting two buildings outside the school.
Shirou thought she had just fainted, but Tohsaka Rin discovered that the life force in her body had been nearly drained. Leaving her alone would be life-threatening, so she urgently began treating her.
At that moment, Shirou suddenly sensed danger.
In the next instant, a sneak attack struck toward Tohsaka Rin, who was currently healing the female classmate!
At the critical moment, Shirou reached out to block the attack for Tohsaka Rin, but was injured as a result.
However, at the end of this chapter, Shirou didn't care about the injury on his hand at all. Under Tohsaka Rin's stunned gaze, he immediately chased after the direction the attack came from!
When drawing this chapter, Akira had considered whether to have Shirou not chase Rider and instead stay on guard where he was, but he quickly rejected the idea.
It was undeniable that Shirou's decision-making was very reckless, looking almost like suicide, which might make many readers feel uncomfortable with the story.
But this plot was inherently meant to depict Shirou's recklessness and his subconscious self-destructive tendencies.
This was a psychological trauma caused by Shirou's childhood experiences, overlaid with the ideal of being an "Ally of Justice" inherited from Kiritsugu, leading to this final outward manifestation.
The core of both the Fate route and the UBW route could also be said to revolve around this issue.
So even if he knew drawing it this way would make for a poor viewing experience, he had to do it.
Meanwhile, not just Fsn, but the third chapter of "Weathering with You" serialized this week also saw its plot take a sudden turn, abandoning its previously cheerful atmosphere.
This chapter told of the police starting to investigate Hodaka, while the price of Hina using her ability was also revealed.
Ultimately, Hina completely disappeared, Tokyo's weather became sunny again, and Hodaka and Hina's younger brother were arrested by the police, seemingly entering a Bad Ending.
Even without mentioning the controversial plot in this chapter of Fsn, the content of this chapter of "Weathering with You" alone would probably cause him to be heavily flamed online.
And that was indeed the case.
However, what he didn't expect was that compared to the discussion about the manga's plot, the hottest topic about him online was actually something else—
"
Isn't the Tezuka Award a prize for rookie Manga Artists?
Why did Akira-sensei, as a serializing Manga Artist, win the 『Selected』 for the Tezuka Award?"
That's right, in this week's Weekly Shonen Jump, the winners of the second half of the Tezuka Award were also announced.
Among them, the most eye-catching was undoubtedly him and "Emiya Kiritsugu."
Consequently, posts and discussions like the one above appeared online.
"Could it be that there's a rigged deal?"
"A serializing Manga Artist competing with rookies for an award is just too ridiculous, isn't it?"
While the post appeared, such voices did indeed emerge; unsurprisingly, these were all readers who had started following Fsn later, or were not readers of Fsn at all.
Because the old readers who had followed Fsn from the beginning wouldn't have such doubts.
Fortunately, this kind of narrative was quickly clarified by subsequent posts.
"Don't those people in front know? Mochizuki-sensei was a complete rookie before drawing Fate, okay?"
"
I know that too.
Back when the new serialization started, the title 『genius manga artist』 was specifically labeled in front of Mochizuki-sensei's name."
"
I just didn't expect Mochizuki-sensei to have submitted an entry to the Tezuka Award back then.
And he even won the top prize.
Isn't this a bit too exaggerated?!"
"No wonder he's called a 『genius manga artist』; it turns out Mochizuki-sensei is so amazing!"
"
So, I'm more concerned about that short story called 'Emiya Kiritsugu.'
Judging by the name, could it be Shirou's adoptive father, Emiya Kiritsugu?"
"It's probably just the same name, right? That sort of thing is quite common."
"But looking at the serialization timing, it might actually be the same person!"
"I really want to read it! Why do we have to wait until December to see it!"
"+1"
Thus, "Emiya Kiritsugu" blew up in popularity in such an unexpected way before it was even officially released.
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