Chapter 9: Not As Good As Next Door’s Chainsaw Man
After the segment interviewing Mikazuki Haruna ended, the live broadcast continued, but Sakamoto Ken didn’t keep watching.
Now it was nearing 7 p.m., and he had to go out for his part-time job.
The convenience store where he worked part-time was right next to the bus station. The night shift was from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., a total of six hours, after which a colleague working the all-night overnight shift would come to take over.
After entering the convenience store, he first retrieved his uniform from the employee locker and changed into it in the changing room.
During this time slot, he was responsible for shelf organization, so he went straight to the storage room behind the freezer to restock the beverages that had sold out.
At that moment, a grandmother in her sixties walked by, also wearing the convenience store uniform, and Sakamoto Ken quickly stopped her.
“Store Manager, sorry to bother you, but I have something to discuss with you.”
Sakamoto Ken followed the store manager to the employee-only room behind the convenience store. There was a desk against the wall with a computer on it used to manage various matters in the store.
Sakamoto Ken didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point: “Store Manager, I’ve decided that after this month ends, I won’t come to the store for my part-time job anymore.”
The store manager grandmother sat in the office chair, smiling at Sakamoto Ken: “Is it because A Jian is starting school?”
“Yeah.” Sakamoto Ken nodded and said, “And I’ve already found a way to solve the financial side of things.”
Ever since Sakamoto Ken moved here, he’d been working part-time at this convenience store, making him the longest-serving part-timer in the store.
The store manager also knew about his family situation and took good care of him, like letting him take home unsold bentos at night.
This even included the time in his previous life when he and Natsume Mio worked part-time at this store together for a while.
This convenience store, the closest one to the apartment, had been an important source of income for him.
Sakamoto Ken directly told the store manager about earning royalty fees now.
The store manager put on her reading glasses and looked at Sakamoto Ken’s mobile phone, saying in surprise: “JUMP? The one serialized alongside Naruto and One Piece?”
“That’s right, but it’s currently only on WEB. To see it in the magazine, it’ll probably be at least another month,” Sakamoto Ken said.
“That’s great, A Jian is a manga artist now too,” the store manager said. “I don’t know how to use smartphones, so when A Jian’s manga is published in the magazine, you must come tell me.”
“Of course, thank you for taking care of me all these years,” Sakamoto Ken said sincerely.
The store manager chuckled and said, “Once A Jian stops coming to work, still come to the store often to visit.”
“I’ll still come to buy bentos,” Sakamoto Ken nodded and said.
He had agreed with the store manager to finish at the end of next month; now he still had to work.
……
Natsume Mio sat at the desk in her room, practicing in front of the mirror.
She turned her head side to side, relaxed her shoulders, opened and closed her mouth.
Then she made exaggerated expressions, working her facial muscles, puffing out her cheeks as much as possible, then contracting them.
Finally, she stuck out her tongue and wagged it side to side and up and down.
Ever since deciding to become a voice actor, she’d been following tutorials to practice.
Now her tongue was very flexible; the tip could just barely touch her nose.
After all, for a voice actor, her body was the instrument.
Especially the mouth, which needed precise control over every muscle to produce all sorts of sounds.
It wasn’t just voice acting she was good at; in that strange dream, that guy A Jian also liked…
Suddenly feeling distracted, Natsume Mio took a deep breath and refocused on her training.
After finishing one set of facial exercises, her muscles felt slightly stiff.
She rubbed her face and continued with the second round.
This kind of practice would seem really strange to outsiders, like constantly making faces, so she always did it in her own room.
Then, she lay flat on the tatami and placed her hands on her abdomen.
She slowly inhaled through her nose, making her abdomen puff up like a balloon, while keeping her chest and shoulders still.
“Hiss—”
She made even sounds from her mouth, keeping the airflow at a steady pace as she exhaled.
This was practicing diaphragmatic breathing, which strengthened control over the diaphragm.
Finally, the full set of basic training was complete.
Natsume Mio continued lying on the tatami, limbs spread out in a big X shape.
She moved her right hand a bit to pick up the mobile phone placed nearby.
Thinking of the female writer she happened to encounter today, she opened her photo album to look.
By her standards, this writer named Miyuki Haru was definitely a beautiful girl.
Both pretty and good at drawing manga—very impressive.
But her breasts were small, not A Jian’s type… Wait, why am I thinking about this…
What she cared more about was the manga’s title. In her dream, this manga had been assigned to A Jian by her subconscious.
It seems I hoped A Jian would become a bestselling manga artist too, so my subconscious made that arrangement.
She downloaded the JUMP+ app and searched for the manga title 《Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!》.
There was already a preview in the new works list, but the unlock time was at midnight.
She’d be asleep by then, so Natsume Mio decided to check it out tomorrow.
Just as she was about to close the app, she swiped the page casually, and a name suddenly jumped into her eyes.
Sakamoto Ken?!
She double-checked below, and those three characters were displayed under a manga’s book title as the author’s name.
《Chainsaw Man》—could it be A Jian’s work? He used his real name as his pen name.
The surname “Sakamoto” is extremely common, and “Ken” is a character very popular for boys’ names.
Plus, she saw A Jian go to Shueisha today, and she knew his dream was to become a manga artist—it must be that his manga passed at Shueisha.
Natsume Mio suddenly felt a sense of relief like a child she raised had finally achieved his dream.
Though she’d always just been silently observing A Jian.
The manga’s official update time was midnight tonight; she planned to stay up late and read A Jian’s manga first thing.
But…
Natsume Mio drew in her legs, flexibly shifting from lying down to sitting cross-legged.
She browsed her mobile phone with her right hand while her left hand subconsciously grabbed her toes, thumb and index finger gently pulling at her right big toe.
This manga was also updating at midnight tonight—same time as A Jian’s.
So weren’t they in a competitive relationship?
Natsume Mio had looked into some of the relevant rules.
JUMP followed “reader survey supremacy.”
Regular magazines just treated reader opinions as reference, but JUMP was different—it placed special emphasis on reader surveys, using them as the most important popularity metric. Each issue’s reader survey could decide the fate of serialized works.
Layout position, ranking, etc., were all decided by readers.
The one with the lowest monthly ticket votes each month was very likely to be mercilessly canceled.
Although JUMP+ was an online serialization platform, works still had to compete in popularity; only the best could move to serialization in physical magazines.
This was like an upgrade system.
WEB serialized works with good popularity would upgrade to affiliated sub-magazines, and the best would go to the main magazine; strong performers from sub-magazines also had a chance to upgrade to the main magazine.
Even after successfully serializing in the main magazine, they still had to face major reader surveys every issue—the competition was fierce.
After all, every time a manga debuted in the main magazine, it meant another was canceled or downgraded to a sub-magazine.
This female writer named Mikazuki was definitely no pushover—Shueisha Headquarters even put up a poster for her in the promotion area and did a live broadcast promo.
After taking a bath that evening, Natsume Mio set an alarm clock to ring at midnight.
The first thing she did upon waking was open JUMP+.
All the works scheduled for today had updated. 《Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!》 took the top banner spot, while A Jian’s 《Chainsaw Man》 was at the bottom.
Though WEB serialized manga didn’t have layout order advantages, she inexplicably felt a bit jealous…
Natsume Mio clicked right in, skimmed it without reading closely, flipped straight to the last page to enter the comment section, and quickly typed:
「Feels average, not as good as Chainsaw Man next door.」
