Haruka was unusually busy the following week. Her mornings started with emails, her afternoons with interviews, and her evenings with silent cups of coffee at the office, sorting through portfolios.
Echo Shroud had put out a call for a new assistant for Mizushiro, and the response was overwhelming. Haruki's name had only grown bigger since Noya and Kenta joined, so now she had more options than ever, which also meant it was going to consume too much time.
The next afternoon, just after lunch, Haruki was at his desk sketching rough layouts when the apartment door slid open. Haruka arrived at the studio with a guest in tow.
"Good afternoon, Mizushiro-sensei. My name is Hayato Arisawa. I'm a big fan of your work. It's an honor to work with you," said the young man beside Haruka, bowing a little too formally.
Haruki gave him a quick glance and nodded.
"This is the assistant I mentioned," Haruka said. "He's got solid drawing skills and graduated recently. He's trying to gain experience so he can become a mangaka himself. He's got some unique ideas for his manga, and he told me he's not focused on the salary right now, just proper guidance from you on how to tell a good story. He wants to learn."
She handed Haruki a folder.
"I know you don't need much help creatively, but since you're juggling multiple manga and an anime production, I figured it's better if someone handles the less critical scenes so you can focus on the core material. I specifically looked for someone like this to give you more free time."
She tapped the contract inside the folder. "Here's the NDA and assistant contract. I've already reviewed it. Just sign when you're ready."
After that, Haruka left them alone as she exited the apartment.
Haruki gave Hayato a short tour of the apartment studio, then walked him over to the work area.
"This is Noya. That's Kenta," he said.
The two assistants gave him a nod from their desks. They were in the middle of backgrounds for the next chapters of Natsume and Initial D.
After the tour, Haruki handed Hayato a page of JoJo character sketches, each with striking poses and exaggerated expressions, and gave a simple instruction:
"Pick one and try redrawing the character in that pose. No rush."
Riku studied the sheet. His eyes caught on the exaggerated muscles, fluid anatomy, and theatrical flair. Something about the style triggered a memory. It felt oddly familiar, not from manga, but from the sculpting magazines his father used to keep around the house. His dad was a wood sculptor and used to show him sculptures by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. That same dynamism—frozen motion, full of weight and tension—was here too.
He looked toward Haruki. "Sensei, is this inspired by Renaissance sculpture? Like Michelangelo's David? Some of these poses really reminded me of that."
Haruki raised an eyebrow. "You caught that? Yeah, I take a lot of influence from classical art. Fashion too. JoJo's not just manga, it's theatrical, expressive, and bold."
Hayato nodded. "I only recognized it because of my dad. He's a sculptor, used to show me those figures when I was a kid."
He thought for a moment, then flipped to a blank page. If he wanted to stand out, he had to meet that energy, the boldness.
Thirty minutes later, he handed his drawing to Haruki: a woman frozen mid-stride, her body curved like a bow—one arm reaching high, the other swept behind her, leg raised, the entire figure balanced in a dynamic tension that felt more statue than sketch. [Reference: Grace Jones' Sculptural Pose (Island Life Album Cover)]
Haruki studied it for a moment, then nodded.
"You've got something," he said. "After just one look, you understood the tone and captured it with your own spin. You have amazing talent in drawing."
It wasn't empty praise. Haruki was genuinely impressed. Hayato's sense of structure and flow already surpassed Kenta's and Noya's. It might even surpass Kotone in terms of drawing, but he wasn't sure. Knowing Kotone, she'd definitely improve her art again.
Kenta and Noya noticed Haruki giving praise to the newcomer as they walked toward him, trying to see what he had drawn that was getting so much praise. The drawing was amazing, with originality. If he had given it to them, they would've just redrawn Haruki's version.
After seeing the drawing, they quietly returned to their own workstations.
A short while later, Haruka and Hayato signed the assistant contract.
Then, Haruki placed a copy of the Fullmetal Alchemist draft on Hayato's desk. "Start going through this."
That choice didn't go unnoticed either.
Kenta and Noya had quietly hoped to work on Fullmetal Alchemist. Its action scenes were a step up from their usual tasks. Seeing Haruki hand it to the newcomer first stung a little, but it also made sense. If Hayato was going to be here long-term, better to get him familiar with the series that would continue.
And besides, Natsume and Initial D were ending. There was no point onboarding him into something that was about to end.
Meanwhile, Haruki turned his focus back to JoJo.
He was thinking hard about how to make it work in today's market. He didn't believe the designs needed to change. JoJo's unique art was part of its identity. But he reread everything, looking for parts he could improve without changing what made the series iconic.
He began with Part 1 and Part 2.
From the system archive, he had access to reader feedback from the parallel world. He could see clearly what fans had liked and what hadn't worked. Now he had the chance to fix those things and take it further.
In Part 1, Jonathan lacked depth. He was a gentleman, yes, but his emotions didn't always land. Haruki wanted to bring out those moments with more weight.
He also noticed that many of the side characters felt flat. He made notes on how to build them up, how to give them presence without interrupting the main plot.
Pacing was another issue.
Part 1 dragged too much in the early confrontation with Dio; it could be tighter. Meanwhile, Part 2 had the opposite problem. The fights with the Pillar Men were rushed. He wrote down ways to rebalance it.
For the entire week, he kept making small notes and structural fixes, adjusting before drawing even a single new page.
It would take at least another week before he could begin penciling the redrawn Part 1.
And while that was happening, Echo Shroud made its official announcement.
Mizushiro's new manga, Fullmetal Alchemist, would begin serialization.
The company began shifting its publicity engine, spotlighting the new series as a major launch. The attention around Mizushiro returned full force.
As soon as the news broke that Mizushiro was releasing a new manga titled Fullmetal Alchemist and that it was an action series, Haruki's Fend account was suddenly buzzing.
His inbox was hit with hundreds of messages. Online forums, social media threads, fan pages, everyone was talking about it.
"Man, Mizushiro-sensei is a machine. How can one guy have enough creativity to serialize three manga at once?"
Some complaints followed too.
"Why can't Mizushiro just stick to one thing? Why does he keep jumping between series? Just draw Initial D and finish it properly!"
"So what, he's got time to start new manga now? What about that extra chapter we begged for last year? Care to explain, #Mizushiro?"
The arguments started piling up, fans turning on each other, old favorites getting dragged into it.
"You newbies don't get it. I started following him back during Rurouni Kenshin. The last two works were mid, but now he's going back to his roots, action with emotional storytelling. This is where he belongs."
"Facts. Today's kids only care about adrenaline and flashy characters. No one appreciates depth anymore. Can't wait for him to drop another proper series, enough of this 'mid' stuff."
"Watch your mouth. We Natsume fans do appreciate good emotional writing. Just because you think it's slow doesn't mean it's bad."
"You can say that to the Initial D fans, not us. We've been crying over Natsume every month."
"Oh, cry me a river. Your beloved Kenshin never even got a sequel. Don't take it out on us just because your manga couldn't continue."
"Damn right I'll cry. Because of this trash publishing house, he dropped his peak for this 'mid' Initial D. What are you gonna do about it, kid?"
While the hardcore old fans were hyped, some Natsume and Initial D fans felt let down. But most understood it was better to end a story at its peak than to drag it out until no one could reread it again.
[Note: I tried to base this reaction on real-life online fan discussions. I haven't included this type of fan reaction in future chapters because I'm not sure if you'd want this kind of back-and-forth every time. Usually, regular chapters won't have this, but maybe occasionally? Let me know if you want more of these reaction scenes in later chapters or if you prefer to keep them rare.]
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-atreon.com/Alioth23 for 60+ advanced chapters)