"A new work?"
Rei hung up the phone.
The information Misaki had just given him was honestly shocking.
Between January and February next year, Dream Comics, the flagship magazine of Hoshimori Publishing, would have open serialization slots, and he, Rei Kirishima might even qualify to submit.
Rei knew exactly how rare this was.
For a magazine like Dream Comics, serialization slots almost never open
Any manga that gets in stays as long as the artist can keep it alive
Authors with million-copy volumes earn absurd amounts
Entering one of the top six magazines = financial freedom in Japan's manga world
Rei rubbed his forehead hard.
"But I haven't remembered a single long work from my past life! This is torture…"
He sighed.
"Well, these things can't be forced. Maybe if I sleep on it, something will come back."
The weekend ended quickly, and Monday arrived.
The moment Rei entered the classroom, he heard Hana and Yui loudly ranting about "Shirogane-sensei."
"Shirogane-sensei is too cruel! Does she even have a heart!?"
"I don't dare read Chapter 9, she's going to destroy me."
"Did she get dumped by her boyfriend and decided to take revenge on society!?"
From the side, Miyu couldn't resist teasing them.
"You two were the ones who swore you'd be Shirogane's fans for life. That didn't last long."
"We're not hating her!" Rina insisted.
"This is critique. Critique!"
"But the manga's fate is sealed. Toru is gone. I just hope Shirogane-sensei handles the aftermath well, and doesn't make it even more painful," Hana sighed, chin on her hand, gaze drifting out the window toward Rei.
"If she tortures us again, Miyu, Yui, Rei, you and I will all go to Shirogane's account and spray, no, critique her!"
Miyu could hardly keep from laughing.
"When the time comes, be sure to call me and Rei. Rei is the best at criticizing Shirogane."
Rei shot her a deadpan glare.
...
The results for the Ametsukage Weekly serialization meeting were posted.
Miyu's new series won by a razor-thin margin and would begin serialization right after Tonight, Even If This Love Disappears from the World ended.
That night, Miyu dragged Rei and Misaki out, and the three celebrated in downtown Tokyo.
Miyu's two manga assistants came as well.
When the assistants learned Rei was the Shirogane who had shaken the Hoshimori Group, their eyes almost fell out.
"You're THAT Shirogane-sensei!?"
"You're in the same class as Miyu-chan!? What, is this school cursed with geniuses!?"
"We've drawn manga for ten years and still can't get serialized, but this one middle school has two monster-level prodigies!?"
"Teacher Shirogane, living in Tokyo is brutal. If you ever need assistants, PLEASE remember us!"
After the party ended, they exchanged contacts with Rei.
Miyu immediately grew anxious.
"Don't you dare steal my assistants! I barely meet deadlines as it is!If they go to your side, I'll never forgive you!"
Rei laughed.
"I wouldn't do that. Anyway, a weekly manga? I can handle it alone.If school didn't eat up half my time, I could update two chapters a week."
Misaki: "…"
Miyu: "…"
Is that something a human says??
...
On Thursday, articles about Shirogane, the high school prodigy,began appearing all over the internet.
Manga critics, Industry veterans, Major news outlets. Even people who had never noticed Rei before were suddenly analyzing Tonight, Even If This Love Disappears from the World.
Rei froze.
Media had reported on him before, but never at this scale.
"Is this... the work of Hoshimori Publishing?"
And indeed, inside the publishing headquarters, the editorial staff immediately understood what was happening.
Although most of Hoshimori Publishing Group's promotional resources were normally reserved for hit series running in Dream Comics, the company would occasionally support promising talent in the second-tier magazines.
But Tonight, Even If This Love Disappears from the World was a short manga. Its commercial potential was limited, not enough to justify this level of attention.
However, its author, Shirogane, was different.
The editorial department clearly had its eyes on her.
Meanwhile, Shidō , editor-in-chief of Mirage Weekly, who had rejected Tonight during the submission stage, was suffering.
Especially when he saw Director Kei from the same department smiling faintly at him as she left work, as if mocking him, his blood pressure shot up.
Last week, the magazines they managed were already separated by tens of thousands in circulation.
And now the company had officially started promoting a manga artist he had turned away.
This felt like humiliation.
"No, no. Tonight's story is controversial. Maybe this week is the beginning of its collapse," Shidō muttered to comfort himself.
...
The new issue of Ametsukage Weekly hit shelves.
And this week's chapter of Tonight continued the flashback from the previous chapter, told entirely from Izumi's perspective.
With the help of Hino's parents, Izumi sneaked into Hino's room in the dead of night.
Together, they secretly took her diary, scanned it, typed it into a digital format, and then erased every trace of Toru.
Every date, every shared moment, the fireworks scene.
Every smile, Every memory, all replaced with stories of Hino spending time with her friend, Izumi.
Panels showed Toru's silhouette dissolving into fragments with each deletion.
And when she finished rewriting the diary, toru disappeared completely from Hino's life.
Only Izumi was left crying silently in the dark, clutching the USB drive.
Because from now on, Hino would not remember Kugai.
But Izumi would remember everything.
Every smile. Every kiss. Every moment the two lovers shared.
Hino forgot. But Izumi could never forget.
After Toru's death, time moved forward.
We returned to the present, the timeline from chapter one.
Hino, having forgotten Toru entirely, found a dusty sketchbook in a cabinet gap. It was a portrait she once drew of Toru.
She stared at the face of the stranger and asked Izumi who he was.
Izumi lied, "A model you once sketched at school."
But one afternoon, when Izumi opened Hino's bedroom door, she froze.
Hino was hunched over her desk, drawing silently.
Drawing him, portraits of the same young man filled the room: Dozens, hundreds.
All Toru.
The final page of Chapter 9 showed this haunting scene.
No text, just the image.
Yet every reader understood.
This was muscle memory.
Tōru had once told her:
"If normal knowledge won't stick, then learn a skill the body won't forget."
Her mind had lost him.
But her hands hadn't.
She didn't know why she kept drawing him.
She didn't recognize his face.
But she couldn't stop.
Hino looked up at Izumi with a small, gentle smile:
"Izumi, wait just a minute, I don't know why, but, I keep drawing this person.
I'm almost done."
That final panel, Hino smiling with calm innocence, surrounded by hundreds of portraits of the boy her brain forgot but her heart remembered, stabbed straight through the hearts of millions of readers.
...
Read 30+ chapters ahead at [email protected]/c/Ashnoir