Chapter 17: I Want to Meet Sakamoto Ken

Back in the store, Sakamoto Ken deliberately turned his head to look. Natsume Mio hadn’t followed him in.

He tidied the magazine rack, which had been messed up by customers, for a while, then looked again through the glass wall at the sidewalk opposite.

Natsume Mio just stood there quietly for a long time, until a bus arrived and she stepped on.

This bus was heading to Takenotsuka Station, and from there she would have to transfer to a train. It would be another hour before she got home.

There were few customers at night. Sakamoto Ken stood behind the counter, carefully mulling over what Natsume Mio had said earlier.

“A dream.”

This was a key word in her account.

He hadn’t just heard this word from Natsume Mio; Mikazuki Haruna had mentioned it too.

She had publicly stated that the manga Miss Sniper, and Pantyhose! was given to her by Lady Benzaiten in a “dream.”

Sakamoto Ken had experienced the first life, and his feeling about it was that it was a completely real life.

The timeline started from the day he was reborn in Tokyo and progressed until the moment he lost consciousness.

Everything was a real experience, definitely not a vague, dream-like memory.

But for Natsume Mio, she didn’t seem to have the complete memory of the last life, but rather remembered some fragments of it.

Sakamoto Ken had actually been deliberately provoking Natsume Mio’s emotions just now, to get her into his rhythm.

If Natsume Mio had completely experienced the last life, her reaction would definitely have been different.

Looking at it this way, the situation doesn’t seem too bad?

A dream, well, it’s not surprising for anything to happen in a dream.

For example, dreaming that he was dating several girls at the same time could be explained as her own dark inner thoughts, maliciously imagining him as a scumbag.

He worked until the early morning. After handing over to his colleague on the overnight shift, Sakamoto Ken went home.

Over the past few days, the progress on his manga drafts had been very fast.

The update schedule Editor Kaji had arranged for him was every Monday and Wednesday at midnight. Only two chapters had been updated on the JUMP+ website, but he already had six chapters of finished manuscripts.

The manuscript paper on his desk right now was the seventh chapter he was currently drawing.

According to the progress of Chainsaw Man in his previous life, the first volume totaled seven chapters.

In this volume, the male protagonist’s core concept was wanting to touch boobs.

First Makima, then Power, then experiencing the “Resolution of Saving the Cat and Groping Boobs” with Power, fighting a bat devil, and at the critical moment at the end of the volume, powering up to become Chainsaw Man, ending on a cliffhanger.

He had to say, Fujimoto-sensei’s cliffhanger technique was also very skilled.

Although it was already the latter half of the night, Sakamoto Ken was still full of energy. He pushed through the rising and falling sounds of lovemaking around him and finished the remaining parts of the seventh chapter.

When pulling an all-nighter, you might feel sleepy at first, but once you pass a certain threshold, your spirit will actually become invigorated.

Although this was overdrawing his body, Sakamoto Ken really couldn’t sleep right now.

The sky was already slightly bright. Sakamoto Ken gathered the thick stack of manuscript paper and went out directly with the manuscript, a USB drive, and some coins.

The convenience store where he worked was open 24 hours. At this time, his colleague from the overnight shift was still in the store.

Arriving at the store, Sakamoto Ken skillfully operated the coin-operated printer, scanned the original manuscripts into electronic documents, and saved them on the USB drive.

The overnight shift was generally very boring. The occasional customers were either office workers on the verge of dying from overwork, or office workers drunk to a pulp from socializing.

Sakamoto Ken greeted the store clerk, “Shota, morning.”

“Morning…” Miyamoto Shota replied listlessly. “I thought you were here to take over my shift.”

“It’s only five. You still have to hold on for another two hours.”

“Yeah, yeah. Another drunkard threw up in the store tonight. I spent the whole night cleaning it up.”

“The overnight shift really isn’t easy.”

“The pay is good, though.”

As he spoke, he walked over. “Ken, what are you scanning at this hour?”

As soon as he said it, he saw the original manuscript paper Sakamoto Ken had placed on the printer.

“Manga?” Miyamoto Shota said. “Right, you said before that you were drawing manga. Has it been published yet?”

“Here, hurry up and download JUMP+ for me,” the two had worked in the store for a long time, so Sakamoto Ken didn’t stand on ceremony and said directly to him, “Then search for Chainsaw Man, favorite it, post a few comments in the comment section, and remember to vote for me in the weekly polls.”

“No problem, Ken!” Shota immediately took out his phone to search and added Chainsaw Man to his bookshelf.

He scrolled through the comment section and said, “Are these comments posted by you, or by real readers?”

Sakamoto Ken hadn’t checked JUMP+ since last night. When Shota brought his phone over, he leaned in for a look.

The number of comments had clearly increased. Among them, those about the characters were basically saying they wanted to see the male and female leads get close.

Tsk, tsk. I just wonder what kind of shock you’ll get when you see the later plot.

Sakamoto Ken organized the scanned manuscripts and said, “Of course, the posts are all from real readers. I would never pretend to be a reader and praise myself. Who would do that kind of thing?”

…

“Damn it!”

“Damn it! Damn it!”

Mikazuki Haruna woke up naturally early in the morning.

These past few days, her sleep had been very poor. Every day, her mind was filled with thoughts of her manga.

She would open JUMP+ every so often to check the reader comments. Most of the time, there were no new comments when she opened it. But every time she saw a new post, she would read it carefully several times and then reply.

「The art style is good, the plot is average.」

Haruna replied: 「To the person above, take a closer look! What’s wrong with the plot? The plot is brilliant, okay?」

「I feel like there’s too little ecchi. Doesn’t the female lead’s skirt fly up when she fights?」

Haruna replied: 「To #11, this is clearly a serious manga. Why are you always thinking about seeing panties?」

「The person on the first floor is right. It feels not as good as the Chainsaw Man next door. That one is the best in this week’s serialization.」

Haruna thought for a long while and didn’t know how to respond to this one.

After all, she also felt that hers was not as good as Chainsaw Man.

But she was just so angry!

Could it be possible…

That Sakamoto Ken is the same Sakamoto Ken I dreamed of?!

Mikazuki Haruna frowned in thought.

I dreamed that he created Miss Sniper, and Pantyhose!*, *and then I drew it and successfully published it.*

Does that mean I actually stole Sakamoto Ken’s work, causing him to be unable to publish this manga?

So, he turned to create Chainsaw Man instead.

And at the same time as me!

Then you should thank me!

Otherwise, how would you have thought of such a good manga?

She rummaged through a pile of manuscript paper and took out a sketchbook.

She was an art student and had a habit of drawing down her inspirations. She would also occasionally draw interesting things she encountered.

For example, seeing a cute cat, or a beautiful landscape.

On one of the pages was a portrait sketched in pencil.

She had drawn this portrait close-up with particular detail.

A handsome face, lively eyes, a somewhat untamed hairstyle, and even a sesame-sized mole by the eyebrow was dotted in.

This was her dream lover.

“Although it’s unlikely to be the same person, I still have to find a way to meet this Sakamoto Ken who drew Chainsaw Man!”

(End of Chapter)