"Please! Give me an autograph!"
Someone spoke to Kai in a very aggressive tone, the words squeezed out through gritted teeth.
"Sure." Kai subconsciously took the volume and started writing his name. Only then did he realize the person in front of him was being remarkably rude.
He looked up and saw a man with an incredibly oppressive presence.
'It's... it's Yoshihiro Togashi!'
"Togashi-sensei, what... what are you doing?" Kai stammered.
...
"You draw good manga."
Yoshihiro Togashi was a very kind person. He might not always be as gentle as a spring breeze toward his assistants or peers, but he always tried to be considerate.
Anyone who knew Togashi would say he was a good man.
At this moment, however, Kai felt that if Togashi were Superman, he would have already been incinerated by heat vision.
He looked up at the sun, wondering if the heat had gotten to his head.
"Manga? Death Note? It's just the characters acting naturally." Kai defended himself, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Some authors were so rational it was almost frightening. They treated characters as nothing more than tools to drive the plot forward.
They didn't care about the characters' lives or deaths, their joys or sorrows.
Then there were authors who built a world and filled it with characters who had distinct personalities, then let those characters interact and allowed the story to unfold through those interactions.
You could say the development of the plot was no longer fully under the author's control.
"That's how I work."
He blinked, conveying the message to Togashi.
'Naomi Misora's death isn't my fault, you know.'
"Heh." Togashi sneered.
He glanced back. The readers in line were waiting anxiously.
He simply took his signed volume, walked to the side, and settled in to wait for the autograph session to end.
He was growing more and more curious about this newcomer.
A gaze bored into him. Togashi felt deeply uncomfortable, like something was crawling under his skin. He looked over and found a little girl glaring at him with fierce indignation.
'This must be Kanzaki's sister. She thinks I'm giving her brother a hard time. That's why she's angry.'
'How cute.'
...
At dusk, the autograph session finally ended.
The readers dispersed, satisfied, already thinking about how they'd share today's experience with their friends.
Kai shook out his aching right hand and said goodbye to the event organizer.
"Kanzaki-sensei, you've worked so hard. Let me treat you to a meal as a thank you."
Kai waved him off, saying he had other plans, and politely declined.
He then looked to the side, where Togashi was sitting at a table, drawing.
Rika's eyes were sparkling as she watched Togashi work, her admiration so intense that her own brother had been completely forgotten.
Kai didn't know what to feel. It was as if someone had spilled vinegar and chili all over his insides. Sour and sharp at the same time.
Refusing to be outdone, he leaned in to see what Togashi was drawing.
A little boy wearing a bamboo hat had reeled in a fish several times his own size.
The tension of the motion seemed to leap right off the page. You could almost feel the water droplets about to splash out.
No wonder Rika was watching so intently.
This was a level Kai couldn't reach yet.
"Togashi-sensei is incredible," he said. Then, standing behind Rika, he vigorously rubbed her head, completely destroying the hairstyle she'd worked so hard to put together.
"Isn't that right, Rika?"
Rika clapped her hands over her forehead and glared at her brother.
"You're so mean, Brother!"
She whipped out a small mirror to check the damage, her mouth scrunched into a pout.
The little girl cared very much about her appearance, and her careless brother was her greatest natural enemy.
"I'm not talking to you anymore!"
"Rika." Kai reached out his hand, wondering if he'd gone too far.
"Hahaha." Togashi laughed, a full, genuine laugh, as if all the frustration he'd been carrying had finally been released.
He wasn't a petty person by nature, and he forgot things he'd been angry about easily.
Watching Kai stand there looking completely lost, Togashi signed the drawing he'd just finished and held it out to Rika.
"Consider this a gift for our first meeting. I hope it's not too shabby."
"Really?!" Rika, having smoothed her hair back into place, stared at the drawing in shock.
"Of course," Togashi said, chin tilted up. "So stop ignoring your brother, alright?"
"Okay!" Rika nodded hard.
She took the drawing with both hands, studying it from every angle, not sure how to store it safely.
"Thank you, Togashi-sensei." Kai said with gratitude. He opened his bag and let Rika tuck the drawing carefully between the pages of a book.
"Don't mention it."
Togashi stretched, secretly pleased with his own magnanimity.
Then...
"Ah! Ow! It hurts!"
He'd thrown his back out again.
...
"Let's definitely get dinner next time!"
Kai called a taxi and helped Togashi into it.
Even as he was climbing in, Togashi grabbed Kai's hand, saying he wanted to have a long talk.
He had so much he wanted to say, but it would have to wait.
"Absolutely. I'd love to pick your brain too, Togashi-sensei. For instance..." Kai blinked. "How to resist the tyranny of Jump."
"Haha." Togashi laughed, understanding exactly what he meant.
With that, the taxi pulled away and Togashi disappeared from sight.
Now only Rika remained at Kai's side.
She slipped her small hand into his, looked up, and asked, "Brother, are we going home now?"
"Home?" Kai thought for a moment. "Before that, there's one place I want to visit. Rika, come with me?"
"Okay!"
...
The place Kai had been longing to see was none other than the bookshelf right at the entrance of the bookstore he used to dream about.
Back then, he was still a nobody. He hadn't even won the Tezuka Award yet.
He lived in a cheap apartment, ate discounted bento from convenience stores, and dreamed of making it big.
The Kindaichi Case Files, displayed in the most prominent spot, had made him envious. A little jealous, even.
He'd imagined that one day, Death Note would sit on that same shelf because of its massive success. Proof of everything he'd achieved through sheer effort.
'This is all the result of my hard work.'
So today, he came back to the bookstore near his old, cramped apartment.
In his memory, this bookstore had felt enormous, like he could never finish browsing it.
But today, all Kai could see was the shelf displaying Death Note.
It filled his entire field of vision.
'It's so good to be able to see this.'
...
Noticing he'd been staring blankly for a while, a bookstore employee walked over.
"Sir, would you like to take a look at this manga? Death Note is a bestseller right now. We've sold dozens of copies just today. I'm sure you'll love it."
"No thanks." Kai shook his head.
He had plenty of copies at home. There was no need to buy one.
Holding his sister's hand, Kai walked out of the bookstore.
"What a jerk," the clerk muttered, shaking his head.
Gazing up at the pitch-black sky, Kai couldn't hold back the excitement surging through him.
He looked down at Rika's hair, the hairstyle she'd worked so hard to fix.
His hands itched.
Finally...
"Ah! Brother, you're so annoying! You're teasing me again!"
______________________
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