After saying goodbye to Furuta, Kai sat in the reception room and waited for the editor.
It wasn't long before the editor, Yoshihisa Heishi, arrived.
He was thin and looked tall, wore glasses, and had a completely expressionless face that gave away nothing. The way he looked down at Kai from above carried a quiet kind of pressure.
If Heishi worked as a security guard, he'd definitely be more effective than Furuta.
That was Kai's first thought.
"Let me see your manuscript."
After sitting down, Heishi held out his hands and got straight to the point.
Even after the back-to-back conclusions of Slam Dunk and Yu Yu Hakusho had sent Weekly Shonen Jump into a slump, with circulation falling behind Weekly Shonen Magazine, the magazine still had a massive reserve of talent.
The number of manga artists hoping to land a serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump was beyond counting. They were practically climbing over each other to get in.
Heishi was already busy managing the serialization of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and on top of that, he was sifting through mountains of newcomer submissions looking for diamonds in the sand. He was too swamped to even think about vacations or travel.
He had no energy left for small talk or pleasantries with newcomers.
Better to just let the work speak for itself.
He took the kraft paper envelope from Kai and pulled out the one-shot manga titled Death Note.
Not long after he started reading, Heishi suddenly adjusted his glasses and leaned in closer to the pages.
Even his permanently furrowed brow smoothed out. He looked like a man who'd just struck gold.
He was absorbed in reading Death Note, and Kai was watching him just as closely.
Editors chose newcomers, and newcomers chose editors right back.
Kai had picked Yoshihisa Heishi out of the Weekly Shonen Jump masthead deliberately. This man was the future 10th Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shonen Jump.
He had a brilliant career ahead of him, and drawing manga under his guidance was as good a fit as you could ask for.
Heishi's instinct for the market and his ability to hold up under pressure were a cut above the rest.
There was no need to worry about his professionalism.
If some rookie editor were put in charge of him instead, that editor might buckle under pressure and demand that he water down Death Note's sharp, biting tone. That would be nothing but a headache.
On top of that, Heishi, jokingly nicknamed "Demon Heishi," had overseen the conclusions of long-running giants like Naruto, Bleach, and KochiKame during his tenure, so he had to be a reasonable person to work with... right?
Kai looked at the stone-faced Heishi and suddenly wasn't so sure.
...
"Death Note."
Heishi muttered the title while rubbing his chin.
"Truly a good concept."
Thirteen-year-old Kagami Taro picked up a notebook. The words "Death Note" were written on its black cover.
After returning home, he recorded the events of the day in the notebook.
Specifically, the bullying he'd suffered at the hands of Suzuki and Tanaka.
The next day in class, the teacher looked somber and told the students that both Suzuki and Tanaka had passed away the previous day from heart attacks.
After school, when he got home, Kagami Taro wrote the names of the other three people who bullied him into the notebook.
All three of them died of heart attacks too.
Kagami Taro finally believed in the power of the Death Note.
He rushed home, wanting to hide the Death Note somewhere safe, but on the way he ran into his classmate Miura being questioned by the police. Miura, just like him, had been a target of those same five bullies.
The police didn't consider the deaths of five students a coincidence. They were convinced something suspicious was going on, and they'd followed the trail to Miura.
Which meant they weren't far from finding Kagami Taro either.
The thought sent him into a panic. The moment he got home, he went straight for the notebook.
Then, out of nowhere, a figure appeared behind him. It had long, powerful limbs, a towering build, and jet-black feathers sprouting from its shoulders.
The creature looked bizarre, almost beast-like, with a terrifying face and a playful grin that never left its lips.
It called itself the Shinigami Ryuk, and the Death Note was something it had tossed into the human world for its own amusement.
Ryuk told Kagami Taro that anyone whose name was written in the Death Note would die.
If a specific cause of death was written down, like "accidental death," then the person would die that way.
If no cause was specified, they would die of a heart attack.
The police who came to question Kagami Taro were a pair of detectives, one old and one young. Not only did they leave empty-handed, but they also let their names slip in front of Kagami Taro.
Five children had died of heart attacks in their own homes. The old detective refused to write it off as coincidence. He was convinced that some unknown, mysterious force was responsible. A similar incident had occurred twenty years ago, and it had led him to believe that a supernatural power genuinely existed in the world.
Without lifting a finger, someone could kill just by willing it.
The young detective was stunned by his theory.
If a power like that truly existed...
"Those people who make me think 'the world would be better off without them,' I'll kill every last one of them. After all, I want to create a peaceful world where everyone has a kind heart!"
The young detective said it without hesitation.
The old detective replied, "If you went down that road, more than half the people on Earth would disappear."
At that line, Heishi paused.
'If the manga used this as its central thread, it could be even more interesting.'
He looked up and studied Kai, who was sitting there calmly, then filed the thought away for later.
Kagami Taro wanted to hold onto the Death Note and do something meaningful with it, but when he went to sleep that night, the nightmares came.
Erasing five people from existence left him feeling sick with guilt.
Ryuk handed him an eraser. By rubbing out a name with the Death Eraser, that person could be brought back to life.
The five students died under mysterious circumstances and then simultaneously came back, which the police couldn't begin to explain. They rushed to the school, and while they were interviewing the students about what they remembered before dying, all five students and the police officers dropped dead again.
At the same time, violent criminals around the world were dying one after another.
Another Death Note existed.
Ryuk claimed it had accidentally lost a second notebook, and the only places it ever went were Kagami Taro's home and the school.
Since students had died of heart attacks at school, the person who possessed the other Death Note was very likely a student as well.
But why would a student kill other students?
The answer was obvious: school bullying.
Whoever killed the bullies and then killed the police must have done it out of fear that the truth would come to light.
Kagami Taro had a flash of insight and saw the real culprit behind everything.
The person who picked up the other Death Note was Miura, who had also been tormented by those same five bullies.
"Die! Die! Everyone just die!"
When Kagami Taro found him, Miura was scrawling names into the notebook in a frenzy.
The last entry was "Kagami Taro," and it was almost finished.
He threw himself forward and stopped Miura just in time.
Miura had already broken down completely. He was about to write his own name and end it all.
Kagami Taro pulled out the Death Eraser and saved everyone before it was too late.
After the dust settled, he took Miura to the police station and revealed the existence of the Death Note.
He kept his own notebook, though.
He told them it was because the notebook he'd thrown away was the one Miura picked up, and that was what set the whole chain of events into motion.
The young detective didn't want to believe any of it. The whole thing sounded too absurd.
So Kagami Taro had Miura write his own name in the notebook.
Right in front of the officers, Miura collapsed. No pulse.
When the characters of "Kagami Taro" were erased from the page, Miura came back to life.
The police finally believed in the power of the Death Note.
The four of them agreed to keep its existence a secret. The notebook was burned to ashes, and the whole incident was laid to rest.
Seven years later, people still loved to talk about the legend of the "Death Note."
But rumors were just rumors. Nobody actually believed a real Death Note existed.
The grown-up Kagami Taro smiled with relief.
End.
...
After finishing Death Note, Heishi couldn't help but smile.
It was the first time he'd ever looked at a submitter this seriously.
The young man named Kai Fujin had a well-proportioned build with visible muscle definition, and the clothes he wore had been washed until they were colorless. It was clear he'd been through a lot and was struggling for money.
But under Heishi's stare, he showed no sign of shrinking back. Instead, he met the editor's gaze head-on with a quiet confidence.
He seemed completely certain he would earn approval.
'Not bad at all.'
A voice carried through the wall from the reception room next door.
"You haven't considered what the readers actually want. The whole thing is just self-indulgent. I'm going to pretend I never saw this manuscript. Go back, think it over, and try drawing something new."
"Th... thank you."
It was a conversation between an editor and a submitter.
The submission had been dismissed as worthless.
Facing that exact same kind of moment, Heishi looked at Kai with his usual unreadable expression.
Kai didn't show a flicker of panic.
How could Death Note possibly be overlooked?
"Take this manuscript and submit it for the Tezuka Award."
Heishi said it casually, setting Death Note down on the table.
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