Because he had promised Amakusa Shino that he would buy art supplies, Asakura left the cafe early after chatting with Nijika for a while and headed to Akihabara.
He currently had no solution for Gotō Hitori's situation and could only wait until their next meeting to reinforce the Curse [Scale] on the girl, to prevent any accidents as much as possible.
"It doesn't seem like there are many art supply stores here?"
After arriving in Akihabara, Asakura wandered the streets for a while and found that, contrary to his expectations, there weren't many art supply stores; instead, there were many electronics stores.
It seemed he had fallen victim to a preconceived notion.
After all, since transmigrating to this world, most of his time was spent either studying or working, and only recently, with more financial leeway, could he spare time for other things.
"So, all of Japan is full of otaku consumers, huh…?"
Fortunately, not many art supply stores didn't mean none, and as a famous holy land for otaku culture, the art supply stores here were indeed quite well-stocked.
"Screen tones, G-pens, manuscript paper…"
Asakura looked through the shopping list Amakusa Shino sent him on his phone and couldn't help but frown: "Why does she need so much manuscript paper?"
The budget for most clubs at Soubu High School was reviewed and approved by the Student Council and disbursed once a month.
If, as Amakusa Shino said, the Manga Club's club fees were directly disbursed as art supplies, meaning art supplies were distributed once a month, then theoretically, there shouldn't be such a large shortage in basic manga manuscript paper.
At this moment, a conversation between a young couple also shopping for manga tools in the art supply store caught Asakura's attention.
"Kazuto, do you think this is okay?"
"Yes, that's the screen tone, I've been looking for it for a long time, thank you, Asuna!"
"With this, Kazuto's manga for the Newcomer Award will be foolproof."
"No, I'm not that confident, after all, before this, I preferred games over manga…"
"It's okay, Kazuto is a child who can do anything he sets his mind to~"
Asakura watched the two of them take their selected art supplies to the checkout, rubbed his chin, and showed a look of realization.
"I see, is it the annual Newcomer Award…?"
No wonder the Manga Club suddenly needed to purchase such a large quantity of manuscript paper and other art supplies; it seemed someone there also wanted to aim for the Newcomer Award.
After all, just like sports clubs whose school teams once entered the national competition, subsequent members would subconsciously want to uphold the honor created by their predecessors, aiming for the national competition themselves.
Similarly, Soubu High School has produced many manga artists among its graduates, with the most famous recent one being the shojo manga supernova, Yumeno Sakiko.
With the existence of those predecessors, it was only natural for members of Soubu High School's Manga Club to value the Newcomer Award, which could directly lead to a debut as a manga artist.
Interestingly, originally, each manga magazine publisher held its own Newcomer Award, and there were several Newcomer Awards that could be submitted to each year.
As long as one's work style didn't deviate too much from the corresponding manga magazine's style, submissions could be made almost anytime.
However, ever since the influence of print media began to decline and online media gradually stole the attention of mainstream audiences, in order to gain greater popularity and regain readers' attention, the seemingly irreconcilable magazine publishers also began to cooperate.
Eventually, they started jointly organizing the grand Newcomer Award to gain a voice and attract more traffic, building momentum for new serializations in their respective magazines.
Because of this, the window for new authors to submit their works was significantly shortened, becoming a situation similar to participating in Comic, where they would frantically rush their manuscripts during specific times.
Of course, this had nothing to do with Asakura, because he couldn't draw.
Specifically, he was so clumsy that he could draw a circle into a potato.
"Hmm…"
Asakura watched the couple disappear through the door, deep in thought.
In his previous life, he didn't pay much attention to anime, so he knew very few animated works.
Even "Oregairu" he had only seen a bit of the '3-minute summary' series on short video platforms, so much so that he still only half-understood many plot points.
But there was one anime that, for a certain period, was very popular, second only to long-running shonen and Attack on Titan, possessing breakthrough popularity.
Even he was very familiar with that anime—at least the first season of that anime.
Pervert.
Ah, no, it was "Sword Art Online ".
However, in this world, there were no obvious black-tech consciousness immersion devices like those in Sword Art Online.
The most popular online games for Japanese people were still MMORPGs where you clicked with a mouse.
He remembered that in his previous life, before he transmigrated, it seemed only Final Fantasy XIV survived among such games in Japan, excluding World of Warcraft.
"I feel like the story of SAO is quite interesting; it's a shame for it to just disappear like that—" Asakura muttered.
Unlike "Oregairu", whose essence was mainly the author's delicate writing and interesting word choices, "Sword Art Online" itself was not known for its brilliant writing.
Asakura felt that even he, as long as he remembered the plot, could retell the exciting parts.
"Why not offer it to the Manga Club and let them draw it?"
After all, he could even provide complete and detailed settings for character designs and such, so recreating it shouldn't be too difficult.
However, this would be like using a complete "Sword Art Online" to beat Kirito's own manga, which felt a bit subtle…
Asakura, having no clear idea, eventually just bought enough art supplies as planned.
Just as he was about to find a secluded corner with no one around to directly return to the Round Table Hall via Great Blessing to save on train commuting fees, he suddenly heard someone calling him from behind.
"Asakura? Is that Asakura?"
Asakura turned around and found that the person calling him was a somewhat familiar girl dressed in a miko outfit.
"Miko…"
Asakura was stunned for a moment, then realized: "It's Urushibara Ruka-san from Yanagimori Shrine. Long time no see, why are you here?"
"Because Yanagimori Shrine is right next to Akihabara."
The girl replied gently.
"That's true."
Asakura showed an awkward but polite smile: "But do miko usually wear miko outfits when they go out? I thought you would change into casual clothes first, especially in a place like Akihabara, wearing such clothes feels like cosplay."
"Because there's an exorcism request."
The girl continued.
"Exor… Huh?"
Asakura was taken aback.
"It's a recently famous ghost story, apparently called 'Nonexistent Shrine'—" Urushibara Ruka said: "It's said that the client's child went to such a place, and their current state isn't very good."
The girl said, noticing the two large plastic bags in Asakura's hand: "Ah, Asakura-kun probably has other things to do too, I'm sorry for taking up your time."
"It's fine, I'll just call a delivery service later.
More importantly—" Asakura pushed up his glasses: "I'm very interested in exorcism. Can I observe?"