Chapter 93: I Want To See You
In the evening, Hoshihara Ai returned to the apartment.
The next was the weekend, finally having some leisure time.
She tossed her clothes onto the sofa, first took a bath, and with a body full of steaming water vapor, came to the study room.
The study room’s floor-to-ceiling window had sheer curtains drawn, but the sunset’s afterglow still filtered into the room, illuminating her entire body, dyeing it with a honey-sweet amber hue, and with having just bathed, her skin was moist and glistening.
It was such a figure, but no one could appreciate it.
She turned on the computer, and Hoshihara Ai entered the judge backend for the call for submissions.
The deadline for the Future Film Star call for submissions was getting closer, and since she had promised to serve as a judge, she still had to spend some time fulfilling her duties.
She clicked to sort by popularity.
After the page refreshed, a familiar name appeared in her sight.
「《Look Back》」
「Author: Sakamoto Ken」
It was this name!
During the live broadcast back then, he had announced he would participate in the call for submissions, and after waiting so many days, she finally saw it.
Hoshihara Ai didn’t hesitate at all, her fingertip lightly clicked, and she immediately entered the work’s details page.
Before formally reading, Hoshihara Ai first glanced at the rating area.
The ratings showed a clear trend of polarization, with a large number of high scores, but also some minimum 1-point scores.
She casually clicked on a 1-point bad review:
「Surfing the web, then got stabbed by this author/smile」
Hoshihara Ai expressionlessly closed this comment.
She wasn’t influenced by this emotional review; she knew very well that such comments were actually more valuable than full scores, indicating that the work’s emotions had truly been conveyed to the reader.
Hoshihara Ai’s gaze shifted to the judge area.
Now five judges had given ratings.
Four 9s, one 8.
This score was already very high for a new short story work; among the top popularity ranked works, the judges’ average score was only around 7 points.
As expected from the author who could create 《Chainsaw Man》, this made Hoshihara Ai have even higher expectations for the upcoming reading.
Next, she opened the manga.
At first, she was nestled in the chair in a very relaxed posture, but as she read page by page, she unconsciously sat up straight.
She saw the protagonist Fujino practicing nonstop day and night in the room for the manga, that kind of atmosphere…
Hoshihara Ai suddenly recalled her student days.
Similarly alone in the room, lonely gnawing on theory books far beyond school courses, calculating on manuscript paper, often unwittingly staying up from night till dawn.
Although she didn’t understand drawing, she deeply empathized with this feeling of devoting oneself to the extreme for love.
Then seeing the plot develop to Kyomoto’s death, and to the ending, Fujino returning to Kyomoto’s room, reuniting with Kyomoto in memory flashbacks, seemingly about to change the ending.
But in the end, the “Look Back” scene appeared, with only Fujino’s signed clothes hanging on the door, and Kyomoto’s return being merely a fantasy.
Fujino could only face reality, hunched over the desk, continuing to draw.
Hoshihara Ai looked at the final scene for a long time, leaning back in the chair, she let out a long breath.
I didn’t expect you to draw such a work…
In that “future” memory, the borderline manga full of pantyhose that he drew, she wasn’t interested at all.
It was only because it was his work that she read some of it.
This time his serialized 《Chainsaw Man》 made her want to keep reading, but it wasn’t a particularly favorite genre either.
With 《Look Back》, it completely struck her heart.
Hoshihara Ai flipped back through the pages, reread the entire manga, and suddenly felt a sourness deep in her nasal cavity.
She blinked hard, tears in her eye sockets moistening her eyeballs.
Hoshihara Ai entered the review interface, unhesitatingly entering the number in the score box: 10.
Looking at the comment box and thinking for a while, Hoshihara Ai began typing:
「This work’s author demonstrates extremely strong control over narrative pacing, depicts the characters’ psychological states very realistically, and through the buildup of seemingly mundane daily plot, constructs powerful emotional tension for the latter part.
Especially the montage handling at the ending, breaking the boundaries of time, space, and life and death in the imagination, but ultimately pulling the narrative back to cruel reality.
This handling method exponentially enhances the work’s emotional impact.
If evaluating in just two words, I think it’s: genius. 」
After submitting the review, Hoshihara Ai stood up, walked to the wine cabinet in the living room, and poured herself a glass of whiskey on the rocks.
She held the wine glass, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window looking at the completely darkened sky, and the city nightscape that had already lit up with lights.
Hoshihara Ai was savoring the underlying logic of that story just now.
It felt so much like the future memories in her mind.
Fujino is me, or rather… us.
Kyomoto is him… the Sakamoto Ken we killed “in the future.”
And the IF line fantasy in the manga is the new world line after rebirth once.
Finally, Kyomoto’s four-panel manga that seemed to transcend time and space is those information fragments about the “future.”
But he probably didn’t design it intentionally, more like influenced by the subconscious.
But this precisely corroborates my guess even more…
As expected of Sakamoto Ken.
You are some kind of anchor point, or rather, you are the medium transmitting information between the future and the present.
The “future” me falling for you has its reasons.
Hoshihara Ai lightly sipped the whiskey, breathing out onto the glass.
“The most important thing now is, I want to see you.”
……
Sakamoto Ken was browsing the call for submissions page on his mobile phone.
After reading a few bad reviews, his mood showed no fluctuation.
Crying is good, crying means the stab hit right.
Short reality genre manga and long shonen manga’s essence are different.
The former needs this kind of strong emotional impact, the latter leans toward hot-blooded, hype, and satisfying.
Sakamoto Ken was now logged in with an ordinary reader account, directly giving himself a 10-point full score, and wrote a simple comment:
「Masterpiece, no explanation!」
After posting the comment, he casually clicked open the work page, rereading it from start to finish on the webpage.
Even though this was personally redrawn stroke by stroke by himself, fully familiar with every storyboard, seeing Fujino and Kyomoto’s story again still moved him.
“Tatsuki Fujimoto Sensei is really a genius…”
“Speaking of which, if I copied all your long works, Tatsuki Fujimoto Sensei, could you focus on short stories?”
“Maybe one day inspiration strikes, and you really create a world-renowned short story masterpiece?”
“Cough cough, wouldn’t that be too mean? Can’t keep picking on just Tatsuki Fujimoto Sensei to fleece.”
Sakamoto Ken exited the reading page, casually refreshing the webpage before closing the window.
After the page refreshed, he noticed a new record in the judge rating area, and it was a full 10 points.
Clicking into this rating, the details showed:
【Score: 10 points】
【Judge: Hoshihara Ai】
