Surviving a Shounen Manga

The Mad Gunslinger of Virgin City (2)

My embarrassment didn't last very long. It was because of the absurd feeling that immediately took its place.

“What the hell, Kiriko! Why are you so late!”

How odd.

Shouldn't he be asking ‘what's happening', or ‘why are you here'?

I looked at the junior manager next to me with eyes full of doubt.

“If you said you would come, you should come on time! All the middle managers went out to find you! We thought you'd run away!”

‘Ah…'

It was then that I understood.

In fact, this attack seemed to have been expected. That too, not something unilaterally decided by Kiriko.

Kiriko also looked embarrassed.

“Uh… my alarm was off.”

He scratched his forehead and sighed.

“Hey, what the!”

“Anyway, isn’t it fine now that I’m here? You guys are the ones running away.”

"What bullshit!"

It was bizarre.

As I watched their conversation, I was caught in a strange sense of incongruity.

‘Was he like this from the beginning?'

The figure of Kiriko that I see now is not the ‘Kiriko of the early days who was faithful to the clichés' that I knew. Rather, it was more like the Kiriko of the future, who was extremely brazen and selfish.

Hmmm.

I felt confused for a while, but then I nodded.

Looking back, I don't think there was anything unusual about it. It may have been that character from the beginning in the writer's imagination.

‘Off-screen' is also a part of the manga, but that world has never been revealed in the actual work. In other words, it can be said to be the author's ‘compilation of settings outside of the work'.

Kiriko standing in front of me must be the original character, the true character. In the beginning portion that I remembered, Kiriko must have been intentionally tweaked by the author to make him more attractive.

Well, honestly, it wasn't bad.

Because I liked the look of ‘that Kiriko' more.

Meanwhile,

“Anyway, you mean most of your guys are away now?”

The situation was still not good.

After Kiriko started walking around,

“Che… Then I’ll leave it to you, executive!”

The junior manager also rushed towards Kiriko leaving behind that absurd remark.

“No, wait…”

Then,

Puk.

He fell down.

“Is it just you now? Are you an executive?”

"… Well."

“Are you a little strong? It doesn’t look like much.”

I tried to calm my mind and slowly diagnosed the current situation.

In fact, it wasn't really that bad. Time alone with Kiriko. Wasn't it what I wanted in the first plcae? It would have been nice if we could keep the conversation going.

I raised my hand to stop Kiriko from approaching.

"Wait a moment. I have something to say.”

“What, are you scared?”

“I am not a member of the gang like these guys. You should have known that with a glance. All the executives of this organization are absent. I am an outsider.”

"Really? Sounds suspicious.”

“These guys don’t even know my name. You must have heard them calling me ‘executive'.”

“Aha, yeah, I think so.”

Thank god. He seemed to have believed me.

“Well, it probably makes no difference anyhow.”

… It turned out to be an illusion.

Kiriko didn't even pretend to listen, and took another step. A weak expression, a leisurely gait. Still, it was incredibly powerful.

I had no choice but to rush my mouth.

“Wrong. I am not in the mafia.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am Agent J-34, a secret agent belonging to the International Council.”

“Hey, that’s bullshit.”

Of course, that's bullshit. But what if it comes with plausible evidence?

“I was infiltrating the mafia.”

“Ugh.”

“There is a secret passage in this building. If there were executives anyway, you wouldn't have met them. It looks like a general passageway, but has a lot of traps installed.”

This was true. A few days later, the person in front of me would find this out when he himself destroyed this building.

“… Secret passage?”

“You can check it right now. Would I have revealed this if I was really on the same side as these guys?”

Suddenly, Kiriko's steps stopped.

“Besides, I know you too.”

"What?"

“Kiriko. Right? I got to know you while researching these guys. The madman of Virgin City who has been fighting with them alone.”

“…”

“I have quite a bit of information that will help you. How about it?”

Then, Kiriko's face wrinkled as if he had eaten some excrement. It was a characteristic expression that came out when the guy fell into trouble.

After a moment of silence, Kiriko slowly opened her mouth.

“… Continue.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Almost done. It was a little tight, but it seemed to have gone as planned.

But just then,

Boom –

Suddenly, the world became quiet.

‘What, what…'

It felt like the flow of time has stopped. It was something I had experienced once.

Following that,

[Adventure King serialization resumed]

[Chapter 3 – Madness in Virgin City]

[Belongs to the realm of the ongoing chapter]

[Villain 3 is the subject of character evaluation in this chapter]

A voice leaked from the hologram overhead.

In an instant, I screamed without noticing.

"Nonsense!"

"What? What happened all of a sudden?”

I'd even forgotten about Kiriko standing in front of me. It was so embarrassing.

‘No, how long has it been since Chapter 2 has ended?

That moment,

‘Ah… was it like that?'

One thought flashed through my head.

There is no such thing as a certain period between chapters. It just depends on the speed of the protagonist's movement.

It never appeared directly in the manga, so I missed it. What if Leo didn't walk and move like before, but was excited to meet the ‘strongest guy' and used his unique abilities? Rather, by now he was late by a long margin.

Only then I was able to match the current situation with the time flow of the chapter. And what I should do right now.

I immediately turned my gaze to Kiriko.

This guy shouldn't be here right now. Instead of standing here, he has to stop a mafia member who is trying to harass a bar owner in the city square, and point a gun at his head. And all of this must be witnessed by a boy who has just entered the city centre.

“What, did you suddenly lose your mind? Why do you look so stupid…"

“I think we should postpone the conversation until later. There is work to do.”

Then Kiriko snorted as if it was ridiculous.

“Hey, do you think I'll just accept that? All of a sudden, you remembered you had something else to do…”

“Not me. You. You have some work to do.”

"… What?"

“The officers who went looking for you. What do you think they are doing?”

“What did this guy suddenly start harping about…”

“Because I think they’ll try to find you, and they’ll run around the streets and do all kinds of dirty things. You know, it's their way. They'll take a few people as examples while scolding you not to hide. Fostering the fear of the citizens helps them to rule the city. Of course, you will get all the curses and the blame.”

“…”

“Shouldn’t we hurry? Besides, there's that bad, blond-haired guy, right? The guy who put two bullets in your stomach.”

Kiriko raised his eyes in amazement.

“How do you know that?”

“I did say I did some research. Are you going to just watch that human mongrel strut around?”

“That punk…”

Then he had a scary impression, and for a moment I almost laughed without noticing. It was because Kiriko's angry expression was honestly a bit absurd.

In fact, the setting for that ‘blond hair' is the first ‘fly in the ointment' that appeared in Adventure King.

A line of resentment and grudge was created between Kiriko and that blond-haired mafia kid by accident, and this caused Kiriko to become hostile to the entire mafia organization.

The reason why this doesn't make sense is that the stats between the two characters are so different that they can't even be compared. It's literally one lead role and one extra.

I remember that there was a lot of talk among readers later on. They understood that the situation was created for the sake of development, but wondered if it was too contrived. It was even set that Kiriko was shot.

Simply put, it's like watching a UFC fighter sharpening his teeth against a kindergartener.

Then,

“But I need to know where they are…”

Kiriko's anguished voice was heard.

Oops, look at me daydreaming again.

"At the plaza. The city square."

"Plaza? Wait, but how do you know that…"

“Okay, let’s go quickly. Because I don't know what they're going to do. Make sure you get it right this time.”

“This bastard…….”

Kiriko hesitated as if she had something to say.

Hey, we don't have time.

So, I dared to add one more word for the hesitant guy.

"Go. I will find you later.”

“I did say that this was the last warning.”

“Sa, save me… Save me!”

“Even for trash, looks like one’s own life is precious. If there is even one person who will die for you here, I will spare you.”

“I, please… please save me! Anyone please!”

Fortunately, it wasn't too late.

I took a deep breath and calmed my beating heart.

The scene I had been waiting for so long was unfolding in front of me.

Dozens of mafia scattered around. Flying dust. And… the blond hair stood slumped, with soaking wet pants, and a gun aimed at his temple.

It was shocking. To actually see that scene.

Even though the blond hair cried and begged, no one came forward.

The chamber of the revolver that Kiriko was aiming for rotated.

“Any last words?”

“I, please……. please…….”

That was then.

"Stop!"

Finally, another voice came to complete this scene.

The timing is amazing.

Of course, this is my point of view as a reader and a spectator.

From Leo's point of view, I'd say it's a little late.

Following that,

Pa-ang!

The revolver's muzzle blew out.

The signal bell sounded. The signal of the long-awaited ‘real fight'.

Leo's was the starting hit, fast as a lightning strike.

"What are you doing!"

Ptooom!

"Wow…"

I thought a meteorite had fallen.

The pit dug in the ground was so large and deep that it was hard to believe that it was created by somebody striking and burrowing into the ground.

If it were a real person, the body would probably have turned into powder the moment it received a shock like that.

But, of course,

"… Awesome. Who are you?”

The guy who was thrown into the dusty pit over there was a human far from such an ordinary person.

Kiriko got up immediately and looked around with an angry expression. He staggered a bit, but showed no signs of serious injury.

It was a moment that made the setting of Kiriko having once been shot and dangerously injured, feel more absurd.

It seemed that Leo was also perplexed. Kiriko must have been the first human ever to get up after eating his kick.

The duel between the two was fierce and terrifying.

Through the scene unfolding in front of my eyes, I could feel the limitations of directing manga through scenes. Of course, at the time of reading the manga, I could feel a tremendous sense of excitement, but not as much as it is now.

Their presence was no joke.

Both of them moved so fast that only afterimages remained, and whenever their fists and feet touched each other, there was a ‘pop' sound like an explosion. They even hit each other and flew away, destroying all nearby buildings.

Yet,

"Hoooo, I don't know who you are… but are you an idiot?"

“Right back at you.”

After a short exploratory battle (?), the highlight of this fight finally came.

Kiriko pulled out a revolver from his waist.

A silver barrel filled with sunlight cast a shadow over the battlefield.

“This will hurt. If you don't want to die, avoid it."

“Screw you.”

Seeing the two of them like that, my heart started pounding again. A duel was about to unfold using each of their ‘unique abilities'.

Kiriko's unique ability was [Six Burning Bullets], which fired a total of six types of magic bullets from a single revolver.

Explosion, penetration, induction, stun, flash and healing.

But in practice, it never really mattered that much. Later, Kiriko even removed the limitation of the types by combining the bullets from his two revolvers.

And Leo's unique ability was [Lightning that Destroys Calamities], that was perfectly optimized for battle, and one that made you exclaim that this was "the main character".

Kiriko the Magician, and Leo, the Thunder God.

It was the first clash of two great forces that would later shake this world.

Of course, I know the outcome of this confrontation. Also, right now, those two people can't show the immense power they would wield in the second half of the manga.

But even so, it felt like my back was getting wet with tension. The momentum of the two of them already heated the atmosphere all around.

“Last chance. Avoid it.”

"Don't worry. I'm faster.”

Yet,

… Bang!

Two forces collided.

In an instant, the surrounding noise ceased.

A cloud of dust rose high like a nuclear explosion, and grains of sand mixed with the wind came crashing down on me like a hurricane.

However, all the onlookers around me, including myself, were unharmed.

Well, it's a manga after all.

Soon after, the cloud of dust subsided, and the sight of the battlefield caught my eye.

One was left standing and the other fell down.

The winner was Leo.

But his eyes did not flutter with joy. Rather, it was filled with disbelief and embarrassment.

Also, the words that came out of his mouth were not the shouts of the winner.

"You… were already hurt…"

When I saw it, I laughed a little.

However, when I first saw that scene, I thought it would be so. I even imagined what it would be like if Kiriko hadn't been shot.

Now what… the blond-haired mafia was really pitiable. What would you think if you knew that your existence was made just for that one damn cliché scene?

There is nothing special about the development after this.

As Rosemarietta runs to Kiriko and supports him, Leo runs to the blond who was shot by Kiriko.

Then,

“Oh my god, you aren’t dead!?”

Yep, screaming like that.

Then he realizes that everything was his own misunderstanding. The blonde hair didn't die, and he was just stunned by Kiriko's magic bullet. In the first place, Kiriko's gun did not contain live ammunition.

Then,

"That redhead… he wasn't a bad guy…"

End the scene by talking to yourself so that everyone can hear it.

Then, Chapter 3 left a brief gap.

I thought as I watched Leo and Kiriko moving away from each other in opposite directions.

Is there room left for me to play?

Now, the two of them are going to take a break for the next five days. Healing their wounds, recovering enough stamina, and then attacking the mafia's main base together.

Presumably, there would be no room for intervention in the scene where they cleared out the mafia. The author's intention is to reflect the performance of the two people as a team.

Therefore, the rest period that will start from now on was the last time I had to prove my worth.

Five days.

At first glance, it was not a very small amount of time, but it was by no means an easy task. In fact, this period received an extremely small amount of content in the manga.

Otherwise, it's all offscreen. The scenes drawn on the paper only took a single page.

A cut of Kiriko taking a break at Rosemarietta's shop, a cut of mafia minions lounging around the shop, and a cut of Leo sitting and guarding the shop, claiming that he owes it to her. At best, that was all.

After that, the story resumes with a scene where the two immediately leave the store with the legend ‘after five days'.

In other words, I had to somehow intervene in those three cuts.

“… Is it possible?”

Of course, there weren't many alternatives to consider. I was just wondering if it would go well.

I stopped thinking about it anymore.

Sitting down and thinking solved nothing.

Now that you've seen it all, it's time to move quickly.

Editor's Notes:

None for this chapter.