Chapter 10: I’m So Mad!

Mikazuki Haruna stayed up until almost midnight.

On her desk were stacks of freshly completed manuscript pages.

From after dinner until now, she hadn’t stopped for a moment, growing more and more excited as she drew.

The time was almost up. Haruna put down her pen.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

“Young Miss, the Madam asked me to remind you that it’s time to rest.”

“I know, I know, Aunt Kazuko,” Haruna said to the person outside, grabbing her tablet and walking to her bedroom door.

The sound of footsteps faded away outside. Haruna stretched, then pushed the door open and walked out.

Her house had three floors. Her parents lived on the second floor, Aunt Kazuko was the family’s housekeeper and lived in a room on the first floor, and the third floor was exclusively hers.

The bathroom was just to the side of her bedroom door. The hot water had been run at 8 o’clock, and the bathtub’s heating function had been on ever since.

Stepping into the bathroom, she saw it was divided into three sections, each separated by glass doors, so the damp heat from the bathtub area wouldn’t drift over to the vanity.

Mikazuki Haruna very casually stripped off her clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket.

Facing the mirror in front of her, the corners of Mikazuki Haruna’s mouth lifted slightly as she smiled at herself.

Then she patted her still-developing chest and muttered to herself, “Sangatsu Haru-sensei’s work is about to become a huge hit.”

As she was examining her figure, the image of the passerby she had met today inexplicably appeared in her mind.

She had even introduced her manga to her and asked her to follow it.

But why was she thinking of her at this moment?

Especially the fact that the girl’s figure was better than hers…

She shook her head, flinging the extraneous thoughts from her mind.

Mikazuki Haruna tied her hair up into a bun, rinsed her body under the shower, and then got straight into the bathtub to soak.

The hot water, with bath salts added beforehand, gave off a pleasant fragrance. By soaking like this every day, her body would naturally carry a light, fresh scent.

She slid half of the bathtub cover over, stood her tablet on it, and tapped the JUMP+ icon.

Seeing her work on the top banner, she clicked on it with great satisfaction.

Flipping through it page by page, she didn’t know how many times she had read it, but she still felt it wasn’t enough.

Hurry up and update, author!

Oh, I am the author. Never mind then.

She hadn’t intended to linger on the page, but Mikazuki Haruna’s eyes happened to fall on the comment section at the bottom of the last page.

「Feels average. Not as good as the Chainsaw Man next door.」

Mikazuki Haruna’s eyes instantly went wide.

Wait, how is there already a comment? And it’s a negative one.

A negative comment is one thing, but what’s the meaning of putting mine down to praise another?!

Mikazuki Haruna clicked on the comment, but comments on JUMP+ were anonymous. There was no way to know the user’s ID or any other information.

The only action she could take was to click the “Report” button next to the comment.

This would send the comment to the backend for review. When the number of reports reached a certain threshold and the staff deemed the comment to involve insults or other inappropriate content, it would be deleted.

Mikazuki Haruna viciously clicked it.

But aside from the word “Report” changing to “Reported,” nothing else on the page changed.

Damn it!

She couldn’t even reply to the comment.

So, Mikazuki Haruna posted a comment of her own:
「What’s with that person above? This manga is clearly amazing!!! You must be the author of Chainsaw Man, right? Coming to someone else’s work to advertise and put them down, that’s just despicable!」

I’m so mad!

So mad my boobs are getting bigger!

She had to see just what kind of manga this so-called Chainsaw Man was.

“Huh?” After clicking into the manga’s page, Mikazuki Haruna noticed the author’s name.

“Sakamoto Ken? Why is it this name?”

She hadn’t paid much attention to the light-colored small text below when she had glanced at this manga before. After clicking into the page, the author’s name became much more conspicuous.

Although it was a plain and unremarkable name, for Mikazuki Haruna, it had a different meaning.

In that dream, the author of this manga she was drawing was Sakamoto Ken.

And he wasn’t just the author of this manga; he was also her… boyfriend.

Of course, you couldn’t take dreams seriously. In reality, Mikazuki Haruna had met at least two people named Sakamoto Ken, and she knew of even more online.

For example, the mayor of Itabashi Ward in Tokyo was named Sakamoto Ken.

So, she had always felt that in the dream, her subconscious had just randomly used a common, run-of-the-mill name for that man.

The first page of the manga loaded.

The male protagonist, wearing an eyepatch on one eye, was talking to a mascot with a chainsaw growing out of its forehead.

「Chopping trees, that’s probably 60,000 yen a month.」

「The kidney I sold before, that got me 1.2 million…」

“Another poor-guy-in-debt opening. That’s so cliché.”

“Huh? A… a ball? You can sell that too?”

“What the heck is this!”

Mikazuki Haruna complained as she read.

“But the mascot is cute. A little dog with a chainsaw on its head, that’s somewhat original.”

Continuing to flip the pages, Mikazuki Haruna realized this was a manga with combat elements. The male lead was actually using the mascot as a weapon.

It’s kind of interesting?

After just a few pages, Mikazuki Haruna actually found herself getting interested in this manga.

「Pochita, today’s food is one slice of bread.」

Even though it’s a cliché poor-guy opening, why does it feel inexplicably cute?

Next, she saw the scene where the protagonist was talking to Pochita in his shabby little hut.

「If my dream could come true, I’d want to hug a girl once before I die…」

“What a poor little thing,” Mikazuki Haruna commented.

Flipping further, Mikazuki Haruna saw the flashback of how the protagonist and Pochita met.

But right after, the bad guys arrived.

The protagonist was ambushed. He fled with Pochita in his arms, but was eventually surrounded.

A flurry of blades flashed. The protagonist was dismembered and thrown into a dumpster. Even Pochita was chopped in half.

“Huh?”

Mikazuki Haruna was completely stunned.

What kind of development is this!!!

The protagonist dies in the first chapter?

A twist! There must be a twist later!

Haruna sat up straight in the bathtub, her wet hands clutching the tablet, her eyes glued to every single panel on it.

When the plot entered the “life flashing before your eyes” sequence, her heart clenched.

Although she knew there would most likely be a twist later, the plot of these few pages had already fully rendered the emotion.

Finally, Pochita began to merge with the protagonist, Denji, and stood up again.

The protagonist pulled the cord on his chest. Chainsaws grew from his head and both arms, and he slaughtered all the devils.

Standing atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, a sudden embrace.

“The female lead must be making her entrance!”

「You have two choices. Be killed by me as a devil, or be kept by me as a human.」

「If I keep you, I’ll feed you.」

“The female lead’s lines are so cool.”

“Is this a ‘kept man’ kind of plot? The female lead is keeping the male lead?”

When the words “kept man” appeared in her mind, Mikazuki Haruna once again thought of that man’s figure…

Speaking of which, in that strange dream, she had kept a boy.

He was a poor guy too.

But he was handsome and good in bed.

Why does this feel so similar to the plot of this manga…

(End of Chapter)