Chapter 30: Invitation to Join the Group Chat

After returning home, Sakamoto Ken sat at his desk and prepared his drawing tools.

His mind was full of inspiration. He could replicate the images just by looking at the manuscript paper. He was particularly motivated now.

When he actually started drawing, he could finish a page in about half an hour. For simpler pages, it could be even faster.

From the time he got home until late at night, the manuscript for chapter 8 was completed.

Sakamoto Ken took the manuscript paper to a convenience store and scanned it using a coin-operated printer.

He had promised Editor Kaji today that he would send her each chapter as soon as he finished it.

As for Shueisha, the lights in the editorial office were still on.

There were a few authors who were used to rushing their manuscripts at night, and their editors had adjusted their biological clocks accordingly, staying up every night to discuss the plot with them on the phone.

The entire editorial department had someone in it almost 24 hours a day because everyone’s working hours were often staggered.

Kaji Keiko rubbed her somewhat sore eyes, took a sip of her green tea drink, and prepared to finish the last bit of work on hand before getting off work.

The flagship work she was previously in charge of had been axed by JUMP. Now she only had some web manga on hand and urgently needed to launch her own weekly serialized work as soon as possible.

She had been sifting through a massive amount of new manuscripts for two or three months and finally found a potential stock in Sakamoto-sensei in the new work award submission library.

Just then, a new email notification popped up in the lower right corner of her computer screen.

Sender: Sakamoto Ken.

Email subject: Chainsaw Man Chapter 8.

“So fast?!”

We just met this afternoon, and it’s not even been half a day, and a new chapter is already finished?

However, she had already witnessed his amazing creation speed during the interview, so Kaji Keiko was not particularly surprised.

She clicked on the scanned manuscript in the email attachment.

As expected, it was still the style of Chainsaw Man.

The quality had not declined in the slightest, and the tension was even stronger than in the previous chapters.

Kaji Keiko marveled as she checked the manuscript.

Suddenly, she remembered something.

She pulled open her drawer and took out the few pencil drafts that Sakamoto Ken had casually drawn in the meeting room that afternoon from a file folder.

At that time, Sakamoto Ken had not taken these drafts with him, and she had put them away.

“The content of the eighth chapter is this part drawn this afternoon, right?”

She muttered to herself, placed the pencil drafts on the table, and then displayed the corresponding electronic draft pages side by side on the computer.

Just a rough glance, and a thought made her heart jump.

How can they be so similar?

No, it’s not just similar.

She enlarged the image of the electronic draft and carefully compared it with the lines on the pencil draft.

The outline of the characters, the subtleties of their expressions, the traces of damage on the buildings in the background, the splattered blood drops… everything was almost exactly the same.

Kaji Keiko stood up, first printed out the manuscript sent by Sakamoto Ken, and then took the few pencil drafts and walked quickly to a corner of the office.

Here was a light table commonly used in hand-drawn animation production. Editors also occasionally had to review animation keyframes.

She first laid the pencil draft drawn by Sakamoto Ken in the afternoon flat on the glass plate, and then covered it with the newly printed original manuscript.

She turned on the switch of the light table.

Bright white light lit up from below, penetrating the two layers of manuscript paper.

Kaji Keiko frowned tightly and checked the manuscript paper on the light table little by little.

The line images on the two sheets of manuscript paper overlapped.

It wasn’t similarity, but… almost complete overlap!

Whether it was the expression on the protagonist Denji’s face, or every tooth of the chainsaw in his hand, or even every piece of scattered rubble and glass in the background, the direction, curvature, and thickness of the lines had reached a terrifying level of consistency!

She was very sure that she had watched Sakamoto Ken draw these few pencil original drafts on the spot. He had not taken them back, nor had he taken any photos.

This meant that he had replicated the image he had drawn a few hours ago by hand without any reference.

Without a single mistake!

This precision, it’s not an exaggeration to call him a human printer, right?

This can no longer be explained by the word “genius”!

After the shock, Kaji Keiko could hardly hide the joy on her face. She almost laughed out loud.

This time, I’ve really found a treasure!

Although she hadn’t launched her own flagship work for a few months, it wasn’t so bad that she would be fired by the company.

But after all, she would feel disgraced, watching her colleagues around her chatting animatedly with the authors they were in charge of, while she could only be responsible for some marginal work on the web.

Kaji Keiko flipped through the manuscript page by page, holding a red pen for making notes, but after looking at it several times, she couldn’t find a place to put her pen down and offer suggestions.

For a genius author like this, it’s best to let him do his own thing.

Not having to burn brain cells with the author to consider the plot, not having to repeatedly pick out errors in the manuscript, is something all editors wish for.

After tidying up the manuscript, Kaji Keiko prepared to go home.

But just as she stood up, she saw a bald head in the front position, blocked by manuscripts and books.

“Editor-in-Chief?” Kaji Keiko hadn’t noticed anyone here just now. She was a little surprised when she passed by and greeted him, “Editor-in-Chief, still busy?”

Ono Tomohiro looked up from a pile of resumes, pushed up his glasses, his face showing a bit of fatigue.

“It’s Kaji…” He pointed to a stack of materials on the table and said, “I’m helping Sangatsu Haru-sensei screen assistants. Her requirements are really a bit high.”

Ono Tomohiro picked up an original manuscript and handed it to Kaji Keiko. “Look at this. It’s Sangatsu Haru-sensei’s new manuscript. It’s just a line art of one page, but the drawing level has clearly improved by another level.”

Kaji Keiko took it and looked. Indeed, the picture was much more detailed than the two chapters published before. Especially in the handling of details, it was almost impeccable. Even the texture on the stockings was drawn with natural deformation along the contours of the legs.

For the handling of a place like this, ordinary authors would just fill it in with black or use screen tones, while Sangatsu Haru-sensei chose to draw it by hand.

“In order to achieve this effect, she plans to pay her assistants a daily salary of 30,000 yen,” Ono Tomohiro said.

“Thirty thousand?!” Kaji Keiko was a little surprised. “Such a high salary, even the assistants of many famous authors can’t get it, right?”

Ono Tomohiro chuckled and shook his head helplessly. “A rich young lady who wants to experience the fun of manga serialization. For her, money is probably just a number.”

He changed the subject, as if he had remembered something.

“By the way, today Sangatsu Haru-sensei said that she wants to get to know Sakamoto-sensei and communicate with him,” Ono Tomohiro looked at Kaji Keiko. “Give me Sakamoto-sensei’s email or LINE, and I’ll send it to her.”

Hearing this, Kaji Keiko was about to take out her phone, but on second thought, she showed a troubled expression.

“Editor-in-Chief, this… wouldn’t it be a bit inappropriate?” she said cautiously. “After all, personal contact information is Sakamoto-sensei’s privacy. If we give it out without his consent…”

“Mmm…” Ono Tomohiro also nodded. “You’re right. I was inconsiderate.”

“Actually, there’s a simpler way,” Kaji Keiko suggested. “Neither of them have joined our author’s LINE group yet, right? We can just pull them both into the group and let them contact each other in the group.”

Ono Tomohiro nodded and said, “That’s good. Let’s do that. I’ll pull Sangatsu Haru-sensei in, and you can pull Sakamoto-sensei in on your side.”

With that, he picked up his phone and started operating it.

…

In Mikazuki Haruna’s room, the lights were bright.

On the desk were neatly arranged a few pages of newly completed refined drafts, but her mind was not on them at all.

That fleeting glimpse in the corridor of Shueisha today replayed in her mind over and over again.

That side profile, that gaze, completely overlapped with the image that had appeared in her mind countless times.

She pushed away the manuscript paper in frustration and took out a sketchbook from her desk drawer.

Flipping open the book, the next many pages were all sketches of the same person.

There was a picture of him with his head down, concentrating on his creation, and also a side view of his face when he was asleep.

Flipping to the back pages, the style of painting changed, and a sketch of a naked male body appeared.

She had drawn this one in great detail, with every detail of the body depicted vividly.

Haruna’s fingertips gently traced the lines of the abdominal muscles on the paper, and her cheeks couldn’t help but blush.

She caressed it carefully. Unfortunately, the drawing paper was flat, and she couldn’t feel that firm texture.

Just then, the screen of the phone on the table lit up.

She picked it up absentmindedly and glanced at it. The screen showed a LINE notification.

「Ono Tomohiro has invited you to join the group chat “JUMP Author Exchange Group”.」

(End of Chapter)