Chapter 53: Becoming A Jian’s Heroine
In the early morning, Natsume Mio got out of bed early.
She warmed up, practiced breathing, opened her voice, and practiced every line of the script again in front of the mirror before slinging her shoulder bag over her shoulder and heading out.
It was still eight in the morning. She had confirmed via email with the Enoshima Voice Actor Agency that the interview was at ten a.m., but she planned to leave early.
For her, this was not an ordinary interview, but a crucial moment concerning whether she could secure the role from A Jian’s book and become the heroine from his pen.
Although it was just voice acting for promotional material, it was still a role from A Jian!
Sitting in her seat on the train, Natsume Mio held the notebook with the copied lines and pondered the character’s emotions over and over.
Every line of dialogue for every character had been neatly copied down by her.
Among them, the lines for Makima and Power were highlighted with different colored highlighters.
In the blank spaces nearby, she had densely written her understandings and interpretations of the characters’ emotions, tones, and even breathing rhythms.
“I like people like Denji.”
“I like people like Denji~”
“I like…”
She had practiced this line from Makima no fewer than a hundred times in different tones.
As for Power, during practice, she exerted all her effort to show Power’s arrogant demeanor.
“Kneel before me, humans! I am Power!”
She believed that with this preparation, she would definitely secure the role.
She had even practiced the lines for the minor girl character who appeared in the second chapter.
In short, she had left no stone unturned.
Unknowingly, the train arrived at the station.
Natsume Mio followed the navigation to find the destination.
It was an ordinary office building, and on a sign on the first floor, there was a plaque that read: Enoshima Voice Actor Agency.
Seeing that there was still some spare time, Natsume Mio sat for a while on a chair in the lobby on the first floor. Half an hour before the interview, she went upstairs.
She never expected that voice acting for promotional material for such an unassuming new manga would have several competitors.
Each of the people present held the same script, and soon the staff brought one to Natsume Mio as well.
Natsume Mio politely took it. The lines on it were not exactly the same as those in the actual manga, but what made Natsume Mio feel confident was that the script only had Makima as the female role.
Great, she had practiced Makima’s lines the most.
Natsume Mio ignored the scrutinizing gazes from those around her. She just quietly sat in the corner, closed her eyes, and replayed Makima’s lines over and over in her mind.
Now, I am the heroine from A Jian’s pen!
“Next, Natsume Mio.”
……
The interview only lasted a dozen minutes. After all, it was just a voice acting project for promotional material. She had seen someone who went in earlier come out in even five minutes.
In the recording room, Natsume Mio first read a narration segment in her own voice as required, then performed Makima’s lines in Makima’s voice.
Although no results were given on the spot and she was told to wait for an email notification tomorrow, she felt she had it in the bag.
Late at night, she leaned against the headboard and opened the JUMP+ webpage on time.
At midnight, which was just a few minutes away, 《Chainsaw Man》 was about to update again.
Natsume Mio refreshed the page repeatedly, and finally, Chapter 6 appeared in the list.
As she flipped through page by page, Natsume Mio furrowed her brows.
「Your job is to raise dogs and make use of them. Do not develop emotions.」
These were the words the higher-ups said to Makima at this point.
So, Makima picking up A Jian… no, picking up Denji, actually had some other purpose behind it?
Bad woman?!
She had a bit of this premonition before, but after seeing this panel, it was even more confirmed.
Makima was just using Denji!
But that said…
Since the manga explicitly said “do not develop emotions,” doesn’t that mean there will definitely be a twist later?
Actually, the bad one isn’t Makima, but those “big shots” behind Makima!
Continuing to flip through, when she saw Denji and Power actually pulling out weapons and fighting, she was even more stunned.
What kind of development is this?
Didn’t Power promise to let Denji bounce chests?!
To actually hand Denji over to a demon for the sake of a cat…
Bad woman!
Power is the bad woman, Makima is the good woman. She had really misunderstood Makima!
After finishing today’s update, Natsume Mio had come to a conclusion in her heart.
Good thing she did Makima’s hairstyle. Makima is A Jian’s heroine, right~
The manga content ended here, and Natsume Mio flipped to the last page, seeing a text box at the bottom.
【《Chainsaw Man》 author Sakamoto Ken Sensei will guest on the JUMP official live broadcast room on Friday, March 13th, （at 8 p.m.）, to chat with you about the 《Chainsaw Man》 creation story! Stay tuned!】
Huh? A Jian is going live.
Looks like A Jian’s manga is really popular. JUMP must be pushing his work hard.
Natsume Mio quickly exited the JUMP+ page, opened her mobile phone calendar, and set a reminder for Friday at 7:30 p.m.
She put her mobile phone by the pillow, pulled the cushion next to her over, and hugged it tightly in her arms.
Her face rubbed against the cushion, and she took a deep sniff.
Of course she couldn’t smell A Jian’s scent, but that didn’t stop Natsume Mio from curving the corner of her mouth into a sweet smile, as if she wanted to rub the cushion into her body.
She pulled up the quilt and draped one leg over the cushion, so her entire body was pressed tightly against it.
In the slight friction, the girl felt her body growing hot. Lying on the bed, she closed her eyes, her mind full of that someone’s figure, and soon fell asleep.
……
However, on the other side of Tokyo Metropolis.
In Bunkyo Ward, at the University of Tokyo Hongo Campus, the lights in the laboratory were still on.
Hoshihara Ai rubbed her somewhat sore eyes and entered the last set of experiment data into the computer.
Having finished the day’s work, she leaned back in her chair and stretched lazily.
It was late at night, and the graduate students she supervised had all gone home. She was the only one left in the laboratory.
Before heading home, she habitually opened her email, preparing to handle some backlog emails.
The inbox was mostly subscription notifications from academic journals, as well as various shopping and promotional spam emails.
Hoshihara Ai’s habit was to scan from top to bottom, only looking at useful emails, then mark all as read with one click.
She quickly scanned through, when suddenly an email from the “Netflix Future Film Star Committee” made her stop.
“Future Film Star?”
With some curiosity, she clicked in.
The email was a very formally worded invitation letter, inviting her to serve as a judge for the Campus Star track of the Future Film Star call for submissions event.
The letter opened by addressing her as—Hoshihara Ai Sensei.
