Chapter 9: Not as Good as the Chainsaw Man Next Door

After the interview segment with Mikazuki Haruna ended, the live stream continued, but Sakamoto Ken didn’t keep watching.

It was now close to seven in the evening, and he had to leave for his part-time job.

The convenience store where he worked was right next to the bus stop. The evening shift was from 7 PM to 1 AM, a total of six hours, after which a colleague working the overnight shift would come to take over.

After entering the convenience store, the first thing he did was get his uniform from the employee locker and change in the break room.

During this time slot, he was responsible for organizing the shelves. He went directly to the storage room behind the refrigerated section to restock the drinks that had sold out.

Just then, a woman in her sixties walked by, also wearing the convenience store uniform. Sakamoto Ken quickly stopped her.

“Manager-san, excuse me. I have something I need to talk to you about.”

Sakamoto Ken followed the manager into the employee-only room at the back of the store. There was a desk against the wall with a computer on it, used for managing the store’s various affairs.

Sakamoto Ken didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point. “Manager-san, I’ve decided that after this month ends, I won’t be working at the store anymore.”

The elderly manager sat in the office chair, looking at Sakamoto Ken with a smile. “Is it because you’re starting school, Ken?”

“Yes,” Sakamoto Ken nodded and said. “And I’ve found a way to solve my financial problems.”

Ever since moving here, Sakamoto Ken had been working at this convenience store. He was the longest-serving part-timer at the store.

The manager also knew about his family situation and had taken good care of him, such as letting him take home unsold bento boxes at night.

This included the time in his previous life when he and Natsume Mio had worked at this store together for a while.

This convenience store, the closest one to his apartment, was his primary source of income.

Sakamoto Ken directly told the manager about the fact that he could now earn manuscript fees.

The manager put on her reading glasses and looked at Sakamoto Ken’s phone, saying in great surprise, “JUMP? The one that serializes Naruto and One Piece?”

“That’s right. But for now, it’s being published on the web. It’ll probably be at least a month before you can see it in the magazine,” Sakamoto Ken said.

“That’s wonderful. Ken is a manga artist now,” the manager said. “I don’t know how to use a smartphone. When your manga is published in the magazine, you must come and tell me.”

“Of course. Thank you for taking care of me all these years, Manager-san,” Sakamoto Ken said sincerely.

The manager chuckled and said, “Even if you’re not working here anymore, Ken, come visit the store often.”

“I’ll still come to buy bento,” Sakamoto Ken nodded and said.

His agreement with the manager was to leave at the end of next month, so he still had to work for now.

…

Natsume Mio sat at the desk in her room, practicing in front of a mirror.

She turned her head left and right, relaxed her shoulders, and opened and closed her mouth.

Then she made a series of exaggerated expressions, exercising her facial muscles, puffing out her cheeks as much as possible, then contracting them.

Finally, she stuck out her tongue, moving it left, right, up, and down.

Ever since she decided to become a voice actress, she had started practicing with tutorials.

Her tongue was very flexible now; the tip could just about touch her nose.

After all, for a voice actress, her own body was her instrument.

Especially the mouth, which needed to be able to precisely control every single muscle to produce all sorts of sounds.

She wasn’t just skilled at voice acting. In that strange dream, that guy Ken also liked…

Suddenly feeling her focus waver, Natsume Mio quickly took a deep breath and concentrated on her training.

After one set of facial exercises, her muscles were a little stiff.

She rubbed her face and continued with the second set.

This kind of practice looked very strange to outsiders, like she was constantly making funny faces, so she always did it in her own room.

Afterward, she lay flat on the tatami mat, placing her hands on her abdomen.

She slowly inhaled through her nose, letting her abdomen swell up like a balloon while keeping her chest and shoulders still.

“Sssss—”

A steady sound came from her mouth as she exhaled the air at a constant speed.

This was practicing abdominal breathing, which could enhance control over the diaphragm.

Finally, the entire set of basic training was complete.

Natsume Mio continued to lie on the tatami mat, her arms and legs spread out in a star shape.

She moved her right hand slightly and picked up the phone lying beside her.

Thinking of the female author she had run into today, she opened her photo album to take a look.

By her standards, this female author named Sangatsu Haru was definitely a beautiful girl.

Good-looking and can draw manga, so amazing.

But her chest is small, not Ken’s type… wait, why am I thinking about this…

But what she cared about more was the name of the manga. In her dream, he had assigned this manga to Ken.

It seems I wanted Ken to become a best-selling manga author too, so my subconscious made such an arrangement.

She downloaded the JUMP+ app and searched for the manga title Miss Sniper, and Pantyhose!.

There was already a preview in the new works list, but the unlock time was midnight.

She would be long asleep by then. Natsume Mio decided to read it tomorrow.

Just as she was about to close the app, she casually swiped the page, and a name suddenly jumped into her eyes.

Sakamoto Ken?!

She checked again and again below. Those three characters were displayed under the title of a manga, as the author’s name.

Chainsaw Man. Could this be Ken’s work? He’s using his real name as his pen name.

The surname “Sakamoto” was quite common, and “Ken” was a very popular character for boys’ names.

But she had seen Ken go to Shueisha today. She knew Ken’s dream was to become a manga artist. His manga must have been approved by Shueisha.

Natsume Mio suddenly felt a sense of comfort, as if a child she had raised had finally achieved their dream.

Although she had only ever been observing Ken from afar.

The official update time for the manga was midnight tonight. She decided to stay up late; she had to be the first to read Ken’s manga.

However…

Natsume Mio drew her legs in, nimbly shifting from a lying position to sitting cross-legged.

She scrolled through her phone with her right hand, her left hand subconsciously grabbing her foot, her thumb and index finger gently bending her right big toe.

This manga was also updating at midnight tonight, at the same time as Ken’s.

Doesn’t that make them competitors?

Natsume Mio had looked into some of the relevant rules.

JUMP believed in “survey至上主義 [supremacy].”

Ordinary magazines only used reader feedback as a reference, but JUMP was different. JUMP placed special emphasis on reader surveys and used them as the most important indicator of popularity. The reader survey for each issue could decide the fate of a serialized work.

Page position, ranking, and so on were all decided by the readers.

The one with the lowest number of votes each month was very likely to be mercilessly canceled.

Although JUMP+ was an online serialization platform, the works still needed to compete for popularity. Only the best could make it to serialization in the physical magazine.

This was equivalent to a promotion system.

Works with better popularity in the web serialization would be promoted to a subsidiary magazine, and the most popular would be promoted to the main magazine. At the same time, works that performed well in the subsidiary magazines also had a chance to be promoted to the main magazine.

After successfully getting serialized in the main magazine, they still had to face the major reader survey every issue. The competition was extremely fierce.

After all, every time a manga was published in the main magazine, it meant another manga was canceled or demoted to a subsidiary magazine.

This female author named Mikazuki was definitely no simple character. To have Shueisha hang a poster on the headquarters’ promotional board and even do a live stream promotion for her.

After taking a bath that evening, Natsume Mio set an alarm for midnight.

The first thing she did after getting up was open JUMP+.

The works scheduled for today had all been updated. Miss Sniper, and Pantyhose! occupied the top banner position, while Ken’s Chainsaw Man was ranked at the very bottom.

Although there was no ranking advantage in the order of web-serialized manga, she inexplicably felt a little jealous…

Natsume Mio clicked directly into it, glanced over it without reading carefully, then scrolled to the last page, entered the comment section, and quickly typed:
「Feels average. Not as good as the Chainsaw Man next door.」

(End of Chapter)