Great Mangaka

On Friday, Genji cheerfully called Takumi to the office.

"Look, we've occupied all the newspapers these past two days."

There was a thick stack of newspapers on the table. Takumi casually picked up a few and glanced at the headlines.

"The genius reappeared. First-day sales of Ouran High School Host Club and Bakuman were incredible. Hinotori Publishing has achieved another success!" "The price of Weekly Shōnen has been halved, but sales are still excellent!" "Hinotori Publishing has launched two new works. Men, women, young, and old can watch them. With your wife, children, and parents, you can become a fan of Mirai-sensei!"

These are reports praising Takumi and Hinotori Publishing. According to the previous situation, this type of report should be the mainstream of this week's manga news, with the rest being derogatory reports.

However, Takumi flipped through them and found that this week's reports were different from previous ones. The amount of praise and derogatory criticism was not as high as that of speculation and analysis, and the focus of these analyses was not the content of the manga, but him.

"Bakuman: Mirai-sensei's autobiography." "Dissecting Bakuman demonstrates the similarities between Moritaka and Mirai-sensei in many ways!" "The Mirai-sensei group reappears, Moritaka and Akito team up, does Mirai-sensei, who appeared at the Osaka Carnival, have other partners?" "Mirai-sensei is so good at describing the truth of love; he was in love with a female protagonist in his third year of junior high."

After reading these reports, Takumi was speechless.

"Do you know why I called you?" Genji asked. "Your manga has caused a lot of controversy. You'd better accept a media interview to clarify these rumors."

Takumi nodded. "Okay, when?"

"Tomorrow, Osaka TV wants to conduct an exclusive interview with you. The interview will be at the company."

Tomorrow is Saturday. But Takumi still had to go back to the company to continue creating video games. Genji's schedule didn't match his.

After leaving the office, Takumi went to the Weekly Shōnen editorial department. The editors were nervously counting data. That day, every week, they organized all the manga data and prepared for the next week's serialization. They seemed very busy.

However, being busy did not stop these editors from being happy about the magazine's great sales. Weekly Shōnen halted its decline for several months and began to recover. This situation filled everyone with fighting spirit.

"Here, Takumi, these are your readers' letters."

Alice held a box in front of Takumi, full of envelopes and postcards.

"So many?"

Takumi asked, a little surprised.

"These are already processed. I've reviewed them. The rest can be read directly." Alice smiled and said: "Your readers have always sent me a lot of letters, but before, I intercepted them. Now it shouldn't matter."

Alice used to worry that Takumi was too young and would be easily affected by readers' letters. But now his identity has been exposed, and Takumi hasn't changed much. Alice thinks the same now. It's perfectly possible to read these letters, but she discarded the intimidating and exaggerated ones.

Takumi took the postcard and looked at it: "Mirai-sensei. There are too few main plots in Detective Conan. Could you speed up the progress?"

Several consecutive postcards contained readers' opinions, some of which were very relevant comments and support.

"Do I have to reply?" Takumi asked.

Alice shook her head: "No, just read it; throw it away if you don't want to read it."

Of course, there's no need to reply to readers' letters. If everyone replied, Takumi wouldn't have to draw manga. Of course, there are occasional exceptions. If a situation arises that requires a response, Alice will tell Takumi in advance.

"No need to reply". Takumi breathed a sigh of relief: "Leave it there; I'll read it when I have time."

Although he said so, Takumi would forget about those letters as soon as he got to work.

He prepared for work, but Alice still hadn't left.

"Anything else?"

"Well..." Alice thought for a moment, nodded, and said: "Takumi, this morning many reports have come out linking you to Bakuman. There will surely be journalists investigating. You'd better call Shiori."

"Tell her to be careful so she isn't mistaken for Bakuman's female protagonist."

Takumi was stunned. He had never thought about this matter, but Shiori and his relationship in his hometown were no secret. Furthermore, he had appeared at the Osaka Carnival, so they might be targeting her.

If others mistook Shiori for Bakuman's female protagonist and spread rumors about them, Takumi wouldn't care, but it would undoubtedly cause problems for her, and she didn't like attracting attention...

"You're right; I lacked consideration." Takumi sighed: "I can't disturb Shiori's life."

"Disturb her life?" Alice thought of Shiori's violence and raised her eyebrows: "I don't think you have to worry about this problem. Shiori will solve it herself. Just ask her not to say nonsense to journalists."

"I'm worried that this matter will negatively affect you."

"Me?" Takumi was puzzled: "What impact can I have?"

He had gradually gotten used to others' propaganda. The media could say whatever they wanted, and he wouldn't flinch.

"You underestimate your readers." Alice stared at Takumi and then said: "You should call Shiori before and ask her to take a break these two days."

"Ah, okay"

Takumi looked at the time. It was just time for class to end, so he took out his phone and called.

"Journalist? You don't have to worry too much" Shiori smiled and said: "Takumi, I have to go to Hinotori Publishing to do voice acting in the afternoon. Then I'll have a holiday. I'll stay at your house for two days. So nothing would happen?".

"Okay," Takumi said, relieved. He thought Shiori had avoided them for the past few days, and that if she accepted an interview tomorrow and clearly explained the Bakuman matter, this matter would be settled.

But as Alice said, Takumi underestimated his readers.

Sayuri is an outstanding student at Osaka's N.º 2 High School and a fan of Mirai-sensei. This girl, born into a wealthy family, has been self-disciplined and hardworking since childhood. She is very good at studying, communicating, and being a person.

She grew up with the praise of adults and peers, but unlike other girls, Sayuri did not dress elegantly. She always keeps herself clean and tidy. Like a white crane among the crowd.

Thousands of boys pursue Sayuri. But she has never looked down on anyone. She feels that no one can match her. Handsome boys have no talent, talented boys are ugly...

Only intelligent and handsome boys like a Prince Charming can make Sayuri's heart pound...

Sayuri feels that she will never find such a person in her life, but when Mirai-sensei's identity was exposed a month ago, her heart began to race like that of thousands of girls.

Talented, handsome, and the same age... Mirai-sensei is like a Prince Charming fallen from the sky, and Sayuri instantly fell in love with him. However, when this issue of Weekly Shōnen came out, Sayuri discovered that she had been betrayed.

She was in class, watching the media's analysis on her phone.

"Except Pokémon, Mirai-sensei's other works have an atmosphere of love to a greater or lesser extent. Especially the male and female protagonists of Five Centimeters Per Second, the bitter and helpless love still saddens the author. How can a sixteen-year-old boy write such authentic love?"

"After Bakuman's release, all doubts were cleared. Moritaka announced that he would become a mangaka in his third year of junior high school, and this time it coincided with Mirai-sensei's debut."

"Moritaka is in love with his classmate Miho, and what about Mirai-sensei? Did he like someone before his debut? Or does he still like someone?"

If you analyze it carefully, it will undoubtedly be a heartbreaking answer. 'How is it possible that someone capable of writing thousands of love stories has never experienced love?' And the author believes that Mirai-sensei's love must have failed.

We can see this in the works. The stories written by Mirai-sensei are all bitter, and in the manga that have been concluded so far, love does not yield good results. Only when Mirai-sensei has been heartbroken would he write such cruel love.

Sayuri felt increasingly uncomfortable as she read it. 'Does Mirai-sensei like another female protagonist?'

She searched for other reports, and the general assumptions were the same, and they all made a lot of sense. Sayuri felt that the image of Mirai-sensei she had in her mind seemed to be tarnished. She imagined Mirai-sensei as a pure and talented boy.

'How could such a boy like other women?'

Sayuri flipped through the comments on her phone. She wasn't the only one who felt betrayed. Thousands of other girls felt that the Mirai-sensei they had in mind was ruined.

"Let's ask Mirai-sensei clearly! If he likes other women, I won't like him anymore!"

"Yes, we have to find out who that bitch is!"

Mirai-sensei's fans were furious, but people with extremist ideas like Sayuri were a minority. Others did not target Mirai-sensei, but the media and the women he liked.

"Mirai-sensei must be innocent! We have to ask the newspaper the truth. They are talking nonsense again!"

"Mirai-sensei is so pathetic. No wonder he keeps writing tragic love stories. He must have been deceived by some bad woman. We have to teach her a lesson!"

In the afternoon, thousands of girls expressed their opinions, and gradually the activities intensified. Organized by some people, thousands of fans gathered at the newspaper hoping they would delete the news.

There were also thousands of extremist fans who went to Hinotori Publishing. They wanted to find Mirai-sensei to ask him the truth. Sayuri was among them. She arrived at Hinotori Publishing's gate after school and walked to the side alley, as agreed with her companions.

"Why do we have to meet in such a remote place?" Just as Sayuri was wondering, she saw a girl with a mask in the alley.

"Are you specifically here to find Mirai-sensei?" the girl asked.

"Yes, that's right!" Sayuri looked around: "Why are there so few people...?".

"They went home, saying they didn't want to bother Mirai-sensei." The girl slowly walked forward, her eyes slightly narrowed: "I strongly recommend you go home too."

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