Chapter 67: On The Other Side Of The Door Is
After talking with Editor Kaji in the bookstore, Sakamoto Ken actually thought about it for a bit.
Actually, he had only planned to complete the first part of 《Chainsaw Man》 from the beginning, since the first part is the most exciting and can already be considered a complete story.
Besides, he could consider drawing other works later. In the previous life, he didn’t know much about other fields, but he had read a lot of manga.
Considering that it might take several months or even half a year from starting the design to serialization of a manga, works that would be born in the next few months weren’t suitable as targets.
For example, 《Kaguya-sama: Love Is War》, which would start serializing two months later, and 《Golden Kamuy》 a few months after that—they were probably already polishing the manuscript with the editor by now.
Conservatively speaking, all manga born after 2017 were in his material library.
Moreover, even short manga, if successfully adapted into a movie, could make a lot of money.
Sakamoto Ken’s goal wasn’t high: pay off the debt, have a few billion in deposits, find a place with nice scenery…
The first thing that came to mind was the seaside in Shonan, with the sea right at the doorstep, surfing on the waves of Sagami Bay, a simple small house would do, and then…
Wait, why were there three women holding yandere tropes inside the house?
Sakamoto Ken shook his head hard, shaking off the scene that appeared in his mind.
He had originally planned to continue drawing in the evening, but his thoughts were inexplicably a bit chaotic.
Lying on the tatami flipping through manga books, he unknowingly fell asleep until the next morning.
After getting up, as usual, he opened JUMP+ on his mobile phone, checked the comment section of his manga, then clicked into the page for 《Miss, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!》.
In this round, meeting Mikazuki Haruna again wasn’t really unexpected.
First, Mio personally mentioned the “dream” matter, and then Haruna this guy copied his manga from the previous life, which completely showed that they both had memory fragments from the previous life.
So, this day was bound to come sooner or later.
Previous life… of course, it wasn’t just that they left unforgettable memories for Sakamoto Ken; Sakamoto Ken also left particularly deep impressions on them.
As long as they didn’t come to the door holding yandere tropes, Sakamoto Ken didn’t care.
Although it ended in a BE in the end, he had been a scumbag for so many years, so he felt that restarting once, this time he could definitely get a HE.
Sakamoto Ken scribbled the key points from his thoughts on a piece of paper.
In summary, he and Natsume Mio would start with a classmate relationship.
With Mikazuki Haruna, they would interact as fellow professionals.
As for Hoshihara Ai… he didn’t know if she would come knocking, so he could only deal with it as it comes; anyway, it would definitely be another track.
This way, three girls, three different tracks, with no intersections between them, which gave a strong sense of security.
While Sakamoto Ken was basking in the morning sunlight and thinking of countermeasures, Kaji Keiko sent him an email.
After loading, he saw it was the promotional short video mentioned before.
The specific visuals of the video were still in production, but the voice acting had been completed in advance, and Kaji Keiko sent it to him to try listening.
He had confirmed the lines at the time; they were actually very simple, just a few sentences.
He clicked on the attachment, and the sound started playing.
Hmm?
Sakamoto Ken’s brows furrowed slightly.
This voice was too familiar.
The image of a girl had already appeared in his mind.
Until the last line was spoken:
“Me… I like people like Denji.”
Sakamoto Ken gently placed the mobile phone on the table, silently grabbed the paper with the countermeasures inspiration he had just written, crumpled it in his palm, and threw it into the trash bin.
Although during voice acting, she used a special voice, and the narration and Makima two roles used different voices respectively.
But how well did Sakamoto Ken know her?
As soon as she opened her mouth, he already knew who was voicing these lines.
But why was Natsume Mio involved in this?
She studied vocal music, and her career ideal was to be a voice actor.
But school hasn’t started yet; she hasn’t even touched the edges of the voice acting profession, right?
How did she directly participate in voice acting?!
The key was, the fact that his work was launching a short video promotion hadn’t been announced to the public.
Was it just such a coincidence that she happened to come across this unremarkable little project?
He listened to the audio several times repeatedly.
Excluding the fact that it was Natsume Mio’s voice, this voicing was actually pretty good.
Especially the grasp of Makima’s tone, which perfectly matched Sakamoto Ken’s image of the Makima character in his mind.
But speaking of which, she voiced my manga and didn’t tell me at all?
Shouldn’t you have told me right away on LINE?
Just as this thought arose, Sakamoto Ken saw the mobile phone screen light up; it was a LINE message from Natsume Mio.
Telepathy, huh…
Natsume Mio: 「A Jian! Look out the window~」
What?
Sakamoto Ken looked toward the open window, put down the mobile phone, and stood up.
Outside the window, across the path, the girl was holding a canvas bag in her hand, waving at him.
Natsume Mio didn’t shout across the street; she just smiled slightly, pointed at the apartment’s main entrance, and gestured an opening motion.
Sakamoto Ken turned around, stood in the center of the room, thought for about three seconds, then went to the entrance, pushed open the room door, and went downstairs.
Standing in front of the apartment building’s main entrance, through the frosted glass, he could vaguely see the figure across.
On the other side of the door was…
Sakamoto Ken pressed the open button next to it and pulled open the glass door.
Sure enough, it was Natsume Mio, not some guy with a spear on her head.
“A Jian~” Natsume Mio waved at Sakamoto Ken and said, “You haven’t had lunch yet, right? I brought some for you.”
“Still working part-time at the convenience store?” Sakamoto Ken asked.
“Yeah.” Natsume Mio said, “Anyway, I only come on weekends, so it won’t delay anything, and Store Manager Grandma is nice too, plus I want to earn some pocket money.”
Sakamoto Ken went up the stairs, with Natsume Mio following closely behind.
She continued: “And A Jian lives around here, so when I come to work, I can drop by to see A Jian. Oh right, what I brought today isn’t the convenience store bento.”
Already at the room doorway, Natsume Mio flicked the braids on her shoulder to the back, tilted her head slightly looking at Sakamoto Ken, and said: “A Jian, why do you look not very happy?”
Sakamoto Ken shook his head lightly and said: “Probably from rushing the manuscript.”
“Oh oh~” Natsume Mio clung to the room door that Sakamoto Ken had just opened, slipping inside first, “A Jian is working too hard on the manuscript; you need to rest properly.”
The girl lightly tiptoed, rubbed her heels together, took off her small leather shoes, and stepped onto the tatami in the room wearing soft pure white ankle socks.
“Hm, hm hm hm~ hm hm~”
Natsume Mio hummed a light tune, acting like it was her own home, familiarly went to the table, tidied up the things on it, and took out two insulated bento boxes from the canvas bag.
She looked at Sakamoto Ken, her eyes curving, and said: “Hey, A Jian, try it and see if it’s good~”
