After chapter six of Hikaru no Go dropped, the forum and fan groups on the official Hoshimori site exploded with discussions from early morning.
"The last two chapters felt like a breather, but FINALLY it's getting exciting again."
"By the way, does Tokyo junior-high really have school club Go tournaments? In my school you can't even find one person who knows how to play, much less a whole team competition."
"Haha, of course there are. It's Tokyo, after all. Schools here have shogi, chess, kendo, fencing, equestrian clubs, golf teams… The school models in the manga are fictional anyway. Shirogane-sensei probably doesn't want lawsuits from real schools."
"Honestly, my main motivation now is seeing Akira Tōya vs Sai again. I LOVE both of them. Please, let the finale be Akira and Sai playing the 'Hand of God'."
"And Hikaru?"
"I don't like him. He's not bad, but god he's foolish."
"Exactly. He's weak but won't let Sai play Go. You can practice with Sai every day, ANY time!! But no… he decides to be stubborn during the team tournament and nearly ruins Tsutsui's goal of getting the Go club approved."
"He's twelve years old…"
"Akira Tōya is also twelve, but HE'S so mature!"
"This week's cliffhanger is torture. Their third meeting, what's going to happen?"
"I'm learning Go now. I bought a children's beginner book, read two weeks, and I still barely understand anything in the manga."
"Of course. Go beginner books are like teaching addition and subtraction. Pro-level matches are calculus. You think you'll magically understand? Take a Go class for six months. Then you'll realize… you STILL can't understand pro-level games!"
"Bro I was reading your message seriously until that plot twist."
"Jokes aside… it's been two whole years since a new manga made me feel like this. Six chapters, no villains, everything is purely about Go, a game I don't understand, and yet I read every panel like I'm studying for an exam. And every week I feel more moved."
"That's manga charm. Even if we don't understand Go, the emotions Shirogane-sensei wants to express are all there on the page."
After only six weeks, Hikaru no Go's fanbase was already huge. And unlike many other ongoing series, there were almost no fan wars.
Sai was universally loved. Akira Tōya was universally loved.Scenes with those two interacting always caused noticeable spikes in every popularity poll.
Both Rei and Misaki knew this.
Misaki especially.
The rankings had stayed at #13 for two weeks straight, and it made her uneasy.
Yes, Hikaru no Go had exceeded everyone's expectations already. But once someone enters a bigger stage, their ambition changes too.
And now, with the ranking plateauing, she couldn't help growing anxious.
The next morning, Misaki, wearing a dark red knee-length dress and heels, walked into the Hoshimori editorial department.
Ever since Rei's hikaru no go was serialized in Hoshimori Weekly Comic, Misaki's status and workload had changed dramatically.
On paper, the company claimed all editors were entry-level, but in reality, editors for the big flagship magazines had: higher salaries, faster promotions, far more internal power
If Misaki hadn't insisted on continuing Sakura Rain, the company would've outright reassigned all her old projects so she could focus 100% on Hikaru no Go.
Her salary had tripled. Her office had been moved to the private room reserved for Dream Weekly Comic editors.
When she arrived today, she immediately noticed her colleagues looking gloomy.
"So? How are your artists' manuscripts?"
"He still has SEVEN pages unfinished. I'm camping at his house after work. The final deadline is in two days. What about you?"
"Mine's done, but he's having a breakdown. Keeps redrawing tiny details. Says if it doesn't feel 'perfect,' he'll tear the whole thing up."
Misaki sighed internally.
Compared to the chaos other editors suffered, Rei was truly an angel.
"By the way, Misaki, how's Shirogane doing? He's getting a LOT of internal attention. Heard the higher-ups are preparing a full promotional push…"
"Rumors are rumors," Misaki said calmly. "Don't spread unverified information."
Then she lifted the document envelope in her hand.
"As for Shirogane, he has never missed a deadline, not once. This week is no exception. I collected chapter ten yesterday, 39 pages."
Instantly, the entire editorial room turned toward her.
"Thirty-nine pages! Is he even human?!"
"He's a high school student! How is that possible?"
"My artist draws 21 pages a week and still sleeps at 2 a.m. HOW is Shirogane drawing thirty-plus every single week?!"
Every manga in the flagship journal had its own editor. But that didn't mean each job was easy.
Manga artists in Japan were famously unpredictable: some procrastinated, some disappeared under pressure, some drew unacceptable violent or sensitive material, some revised endlessly, some refused to submit without months of rewriting
Editors usually juggled chaos.
Only Misaki felt like she was doing nothing.
Her "weekly job" was literally: go to Rei's house → pick up neatly completed manuscripts
Sometimes Rei even delivered them to her personally.
And she couldn't give him any advice on Go-related storytelling.
The same held true for the artwork and plot, and yet, Hikaru no Go had grown step by step into what it was now.
Misaki chatted lightly with her colleagues while glancing at the clock.
Two minutes left until the weekly popularity ranking announcement at nine.
The entire editorial office slowly fell silent.
For all their cheerful talk, every editor here was competing directly with all the others.
If a series in Dream Weekly Comic got canceled, the editor responsible would be kicked out of this private editorial room and sent back to the general open-office area, losing most of their privileges.
But if someone nurtured a series that became one of the pillars of the magazine…they could qualify to join serialization meetingsand even gain the right to run for the position of Editor-in-Chief.
As these thoughts crossed her mind, a new file popped up in the editorial group chat.
Misaki's heart rate jumped as she opened the file instantly.
Her gaze ran from top to bottom, and then stopped sharply on a line of data:
Hikaru no Go - Chapter 6
Popularity Rank: 11th
Rating: 9.2
Rating Rank: 5th
Compared to last week's 13th place, it had jumped two full spots.
Instantly, whispers rose throughout the office.
"Eleventh…?"
"Seriously?!"
"Hikaru no Go reached eleven?!"
"It climbed two ranks? That's insane."
"Six weeks after serialization began and it's already trying to break into the top ten of Dream Weekly?!"
Misaki kept her expression calm, as if she'd expected this outcome.
But inside, turbulence rippled through her.
'Hikaru no Go is already 11th…?'
She remembered something clearly.
When her mother serialized manga in Dream Weekly Comic over ten years ago, her best result was 4th place, and even then, she never reached the top three.
And her mother was considered a genius of her era.
Furthermore, her mother's series took 53 weeks before it first broke into the top ten.
This was… frankly absurd.
While Misaki was still absorbing this, her phone vibrated.
A message from the Editor-in-Chief, Han.
She was summoned.
When she arrived in his office, Han got straight to the point.
"Prepare to coordinate with the other departments. We're beginning preparations to publish the first collected volume of Hikaru no Go."
Misaki's eyes widened.
"It's only been serialized for six weeks, and we're already releasing a volume?"
Han tapped a finger on the desk.
"The material is there. A standard volume binds six or seven chapters. But Hikaru no Go has massive page counts. Three or four chapters are enough for a full volume."
Then he added, his tone becoming meaningful:
"And… we intend to strike while the iron is hot. Rei has already proven his skill. The Group intends to support him with unconventional preferential treatment."
A quiet sentence left Han's mouth, one that made Misaki's heart shake.
"Not only will the volumes come early, but other derivative developments will also move ahead quickly. We want to finish as much as possible before he graduates high school."
Misaki's breath quickened.
"Other derivative development? You mean, animation?"
Han smiled thinly.
"I didn't say that. But I also won't stop you from thinking it."
Then his tone sharpened.
"What I do want is for Hikaru no Go to break into the top ten as soon as possible."
"We don't want another series that floats between 13th and 11th place for one or two years but never enters the top ten."
"Even if we favor a young artist, he must show concrete strength."
Misaki fell silent.
She fully understood what her mother's old friend was telling her.
They needed to prepare now.
Even a slight push from the Hoshimori Group could transform a newcomer into a top-tier manga master in months.
The truth of the manga world was simple:
Genius manga artists were not rare. In a country with hundreds of millions of people, even "one in ten thousand" geniuses numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
What was truly scarce in the manga world of Japan were the opportunities controlled by the major companies dominating the industry.
No matter how brilliant a manga was, it only reached the public through media exposure, print circulation, offline promotions, animation tie-ins, and other distribution channels.
But if a creator lost the favor of those major corporations, and relied solely on the quality of their work to survive, unless they were a genius among geniuses, someone capable of defying capital altogether, their manga would most likely achieve critical acclaim but fail commercially.
It might earn an impeccable reputation, but the sales of collected volumes would cap at around one million per volume at best.
...
At noon, on the school rooftop, Rei listened to Misaki explain everything she had learned from the Hoshimori Group.
Popularity rank: 11th.
Rating rank: 5th.
Rei exhaled.
Misaki continued:
"Also, the collected volumes may be released very soon. And I'll need to sign several supplemental agreements with the Hoshimori Group.During Hikaru no Go's serialization, you'll need to fully cooperate with all Group-promotional activities, events, interviews, autograph sessions, commercial appearances they arrange…"
Rei sighed again.
He already felt resistance bubbling just hearing the list.
But there was no helping it; in life, gaining something meant sacrificing something.
As long as the Hoshimori Group didn't interfere in how he drew the manga, didn't force content changes or meddle with plot directionm, everything else was simply troublesome noise.
He didn't mind giving up a portion of profits.
A few days passed peacefully.
The second semester of eleventh grade had begun. Lessons were effectively finished, and everyone else was already preparing intensely for the university entrance exams.
But for Rei and Miyu, none of this mattered.
Both aimed to become full-time manga artists.
University was secondary, they would simply attempt to get into a school matching their academic level.
With Miyu's grades, she could enter any of Japan's top ten universities.
Rei, with his accumulated past-life university knowledge, could easily enter a top-tier school with minimal effort.
Neither felt stressed about exams.
They drew manga at their own pace.
Wednesday arrived.
Early in the morning, fans who had waited a week began flooding the forum.
Choji an office worker recently laid off and now spending his days consuming manga nonstop, entered a bookstore while reading the forum on his phone.
"Chapter seven… I'm here."
The first month of unemployment was still the easiest; the anxiety hadn't sunk in yet.
Choji hummed, picked up a copy of Dream Weekly Comic, and headed to checkout.
He often wondered how the six major manga magazines in Japan even made money.
A 500-page issue of Hoshimori Weekly cost only 300 yen, pocket money for any student.
Sure, the paper quality was cheap compared to collected volumes, but at this price? You couldn't complain.
He shoved aside his random thoughts, paid, sat down on a stool in the store, and flipped directly to Hikaru no Go.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The story continued exactly where chapter six left off.
Hikaru and Akira's encounter at the team tournament didn't lead to any dramatic clash.
Instead, it was discovered that Hikaru, still an elementary school student, had impersonated a middle-schooler to compete.
The championship the trio won was revoked.
Time in the manga moved forward.
Hikaru entered middle school.
Since their previous victory had been voided, Tsutsui's Go club still wasn't formally recognized by the school. To gain recognition, they needed new achievements in the new academic year.
Naturally, once Hikaru entered middle school, he joined the Go club with Akari, practicing every day and gradually improving.
After several months…
Akira came to find him.
He asked around, located the Go club's activity room, a dusty old storage-classroom on the first floor, where Hikaru, Akari, and Tsutsui were happily playing Go.
Tsutsui didn't understand why Hikaru's strength fluctuated between brilliance and absurd clumsiness, but as someone who loved Go deeply, he didn't pry into it.
But Akira, watching through the window, his entire expression changed.
Because he could not believe that the genius who had defeated him, the person he regarded with fear and admiration, was not advancing professionally, but instead wasting his talent in a middle-school Go club.
Chojii, reading this, completely understood Akira's mood.
If he were Akira, he would break too.
Akira stared through the window at Hikaru joyfully playing Go.
With a serious face but a sincere voice, he suddenly addressed Hikaru, who had noticed his presence.
"Hikaru Shindō, why would someone as strong as you join a school Go club?
Aren't you coming to the Go Salon anymore? I'm there almost every day, wondering how you'd respond to my next move…"
"I've been training nonstop, to become a worthy opponent for you. I'll always wait for you. I only came to tell you that."
Choji stared at the panel, deeply moved.
Akira's sincerity, his seriousness…
If only he knew…
The one playing those brilliant games wasn't Hikaru, but Sai standing behind him.