Chapter 17: Want To See Sakamoto Ken
Back at the store, Sakamoto Ken deliberately turned his head to look, but Natsume Mio didn’t follow inside.
He tidied up the magazine shelf that had been messed up by customers, then looked across at the sidewalk through the glass wall again.
Natsume Mio just stood there quietly for a long time until the bus arrived, and she stepped on board.
This bus was heading to Takezuka Station, and then she still had to transfer to a train, which would take an hour to get home.
There were few customers at the store at night, so Sakamoto Ken stood behind the counter, carefully pondering the words he had just heard from Natsume Mio.
“Dream.”
This was a very key word in her story.
He had heard this word not only from Natsume Mio, but Mikazuki Haruna had also mentioned it.
She had publicly stated that Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose! was “received in a dream” from Lord Benzaiten.
Sakamoto Ken had experienced one round, and his feeling of that round was a completely real life.
The timeline started from the day he was reborn in Tokyo and continued until the moment he lost consciousness.
Everything was real experiences, absolutely not vague memories like a dream.
But for Natsume Mio, she seemed to not have complete previous life memories, but remembered some fragments of them.
Sakamoto Ken had actually deliberately stirred Natsume Mio’s emotions just now, drawing her into his rhythm.
If Natsume Mio had fully experienced the previous life, her reaction would definitely be different.
It seemed like the situation wasn’t so bad after all?
Dreams, of course, anything could happen and it wouldn’t be strange.
For example, dreaming that he was dating several girls at the same time could be explained as her own dark inner thoughts maliciously imagining him as a scumbag.
Work continued until the early hours of the morning, and after handing over to the night shift colleague, Sakamoto Ken went home.
Over these past few days, progress on the manga manuscript had been fast.
Editor Kaji had scheduled updates for him at midnight every Monday and Wednesday; only two chapters had been updated on the JUMP+ website, but he already had six completed chapters drawn.
The manuscript paper on the desk now was the seventh chapter he was currently drawing.
According to the progress of Chainsaw Man in his previous life, the first volume totaled seven chapters.
In this volume, the male protagonist’s core idea was to touch breasts.
First Makima, then Power, then experiencing the Save the Cat and Bouncing Chests resolution together with Power, fighting a bat demon, and at the key moment at the end of the volume, bursting with power to become Chainsaw Man, ending on a cliffhanger.
It had to be said that Tatsuki Fujimoto Sensei’s cliffhanger technique was very skilled.
Although it was already late at night, Sakamoto Ken was still full of energy and stubbornly finished the remaining part of the seventh chapter amid the surrounding sounds of lovemaking.
When staying up late, you might feel sleepy at first, but once you pass a certain threshold, your spirits would instead become invigorated.
Although this was overdrawing his body, Sakamoto Ken really couldn’t sleep right now.
The sky was already slightly bright, so Sakamoto Ken straightened the thick stack of manuscript paper and went out directly with the manuscript paper, USB drive, and coin.
The convenience store where he worked was open 24 hours, and at this time, there was still a night shift colleague in the store.
Arriving at the store, Sakamoto Ken skillfully operated the coin-operated printer, scanning the original manuscript into an electronic document and saving it on the USB drive.
Night shifts were generally very boring; the occasional customers were either office workers who had worked overtime to the point of near collapse or office workers drunk from after-work drinks.
Sakamoto Ken greeted the store clerk: “Shota, morning.”
“Morning…” Miyamoto Shota replied listlessly, “I thought you were here to take over my shift.”
“It’s only five; you’ve still got two hours to go.”
“Yeah, yeah, tonight another drunkard puked in the store, and I cleaned all night.”
“Night shifts really aren’t easy.”
“But the pay is good.”
As he spoke, he walked over: “A Jian, what are you scanning at this hour?”
As soon as he said it, he saw the original manuscript paper Sakamoto Ken had placed on the printer.
“Manga?” Miyamoto Shota said. “Right, you mentioned before that you were drawing manga. Has it been published now?”
“Come on, quickly download JUMP+ for me.” The two had worked at the store for a long time, so Sakamoto Ken didn’t stand on ceremony and said directly to him, “Then search for Chainsaw Man, add it to your bookshelf, post a few times in the comment section, and remember to vote for me every week.”
“Nice, A Jian!” Shota immediately picked up his mobile phone to search and added Chainsaw Man to his bookshelf.
He scrolled through the comment section and said, “Are these comments posted by you, or by real readers?”
Sakamoto Ken hadn’t checked JUMP+ since last night; when Shota brought over the phone, he leaned in to take a look.
The number of comments had clearly increased, and those about the characters were basically saying they wanted to see the male lead and female lead get intimate.
Tsk tsk, just don’t know what kind of shock you’ll feel when you see the later plot.
Sakamoto Ken tidied up the scanned manuscript and said, “Of course the posters are all real readers. I wouldn’t pretend to be a reader to hype myself up. Who would do that?”
……
“Damn it!”
“Damn it! Damn it!”
Mikazuki Haruna woke up naturally early in the morning.
These past few days, her sleep had been poor; every day her mind was filled with thoughts of her own manga.
Every so often, she would open JUMP+ to check the reader comments. Most of the time there were no new comments when she opened it, but whenever she saw new posts, she would read them carefully several times and reply.
Art style is nice, plot is average.
Haruna replied: The one upstairs, take another careful look! Where’s the problem with the plot? The plot is great, okay?
Feels like there’s too little fanservice; doesn’t the female lead’s skirt flutter when she fights?
Haruna replied: Replying to #11 upstairs, this is clearly a serious manga, why are you always thinking about panties?
The first floor one is right; feels not as good as Chainsaw Man next door. That’s the best serialization this issue.
Haruna thought for a long time but didn’t know how to respond to this one.
After all, she felt the same way, that she wasn’t as good as Chainsaw Man.
But it still made her mad!
Could it be possible…
That Sakamoto Ken is the Sakamoto Ken I dreamed about?!
Mikazuki Haruna frowned in thought.
I dreamed that he created Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!, then I drew it and successfully published it.
Actually, it’s like I stole Sakamoto Ken’s work, so he couldn’t continue publishing this manga?
That’s why he turned to creating Chainsaw Man.
And serializing at the same time as me!
Then you should thank me!
Otherwise, how would you have thought of such a great manga?
She rummaged through a pile of manuscript paper and pulled out a sketchbook.
She studied art and had a habit of sketching inspirations, and would also draw interesting things she encountered.
Like seeing a cute cat or a beautiful landscape.
On one of the pages was a portrait sketched with pencil.
She had drawn this close-up portrait with particular care.
A handsome face, lively eyes, a somewhat unruly hairstyle, and even a sesame-sized mole by the eyebrow was dotted in.
This was her dream guy.
“Although it’s unlikely to be the same person, I still need to find a way to meet this Sakamoto Ken who drew Chainsaw Man!”
