"Fujin's taking time off again today, huh."
The chef leaned his arms on the kitchen service window, looking genuinely surprised.
"He's always been so hardworking. What's gotten into him lately?"
Nozaki, who had been spacing out at the counter, couldn't help but puff out his chest when he heard that. "Time off? Fujin's not going to be working as a restaurant waiter ever again."
"Why not?" the chef asked.
Nozaki waved him off and turned toward the door. A customer had just walked in.
The chef stood there, confused.
"What's he so proud of?"
...
Wearing a mask, Kai arrived at the Shueisha building once more. This time, his old classmate Furuta recognized him on sight.
"Fujin." His eyes lit up, and he walked over.
There were tens of millions of people in Tokyo, but the number Furuta could actually hold a real conversation with could be counted on one hand.
And Kai was a friend from back home on top of that.
"Furuta." Kai nodded in greeting and pulled off his mask.
Furuta noticed the dark circles under his eyes and asked, "What brings you here this time?"
Kai smiled, looking a little sheepish. "I was selected for the Tezuka Award. Editor Heishi said he had something to discuss with me."
Furuta went blank for a second.
"Selected?"
He studied Kai closely. The man looked the same as the last time they'd met: bloodshot eyes, rough around the edges. But something about him felt different now.
Furuta murmured, "The 'Manga Artist Fujin' that everyone used to make fun of is actually going to become a real manga artist."
Kai heard him and tightened his grip on the paper bag in his hand. Inside were the storyboards for Death Note.
"Not quite there yet."
...
After parting ways with Furuta, Kai contacted Heishi through the front desk staff at Shueisha, letting him know he'd arrived and was waiting in Meeting Room 1.
Less than five minutes later, Heishi walked into the room looking visibly excited, a file tucked under his arm.
Kai stood up quickly to greet him. "Editor Heishi..."
"No need to be so formal." Heishi waved him off and sat down across from him. "Thanks for coming in, Fujin."
Kai shook his head. "It's my pleasure."
"Then I'll get right to it. First of all, congratulations on your selection."
Humming a little fanfare, Heishi produced a party popper from his pocket and yanked the string. It went off with a bang, and glitter exploded everywhere.
Kai stood there, bewildered, picking bits of glitter out of his bangs while the corner of his mouth twitched. "Ah... th-thank you."
"Mm." Heishi nodded with a perfectly straight face, looking as serious as if someone else entirely had just set off the party popper.
"Now that the celebration is out of the way, it's time to put past glories aside." He handed a form to Kai. "This is the evaluation feedback sheet."
The message was clear: there was still learning and improving to be done.
The evaluation feedback sheet contained the scores each judge on the Tezuka Award panel had given the entry. The maximum score was five points.
Kai took it and read through it carefully.
He noticed that every single judge, whether they were manga artists or editors, had given the plot of Death Note a perfect score.
"What a manga with truly brilliant ideas. Why can't I come up with something like a little notebook that kills people?"
That was Yoshihiro Togashi, sighing with theatrical regret.
Kai figured Togashi-sensei was just trying to boost his confidence. Someone like Togashi, famous for his wild imagination, wouldn't actually be this dramatic about it.
In another year, Hunter x Hunter would begin serialization. The concepts Togashi built into that series practically ushered in a new era of shonen manga.
Whether it was Nen abilities or the Hunter profession, everything had felt like a breath of fresh air to Kai.
"What an interesting work." That was Masanori Morita.
"As expected, newcomers always bring the most interesting ideas. This is exactly what the Tezuka Award is for." That was Masakazu Katsura.
Compared to the manga artists, the editors' evaluations focused more on commercial value.
"Shinigami are wildly exaggerated creatures, but it's great that Kagami Taro still possesses the ability to think for himself. He has the qualities of a Jump protagonist. Especially at the end, when Kagami Taro deceives the police and keeps a Death Note. A Jump protagonist can be foolish, but they must never be ordinary. You understood that." That was Kazuhiko Torishima.
The current Editor-in-Chief of Jump himself.
Kai thought the man seemed to think highly of him.
But that didn't matter much in the end. A manga artist had to let the work speak for itself.
Unlike the plot scores, the art scores were all in the two-to-three range.
Even under the lenient standards of a newcomer award, that was still pretty bad.
"Really rough. It's like looking at my younger self."
"Ha, it's a bit more charming than stiff, mechanical drawing. I feel like I'm watching a beginner who's trying desperately to draw well but just can't get the details right."
"You need to practice hard. You won't get far on an excellent plot alone."
There was teasing, and there was genuine encouragement.
Along with their comments, the judges also offered practical advice, recommending drawing methods and books they considered useful.
"Hoo..."
Kai let out a long breath and set the evaluation sheet down.
Heishi, who had been waiting patiently, saw this and asked in a careful tone.
"How are you feeling right now?"
"A little happy, but mostly frustrated," Kai admitted. "I feel like I haven't done well enough. It's hard not to be disappointed in my own lack of ability."
"That's exactly the right attitude." Heishi nodded with a smile. "Manga artists are all professionals, but their evaluations almost always line up with what readers think."
"If Death Note gets a chance at serialization and hits the magazine, readers will be blown away by the plot, no question. But they'll also tear the art apart."
"The more brilliant the plot, the more the weak art sticks out."
Kai nodded. "I understand."
Heishi was telling him to fill in his biggest weakness as fast as he possibly could.
It was the weakest-link principle. Poor art dragged everything else down with it.
This wouldn't have been as devastating in an era where series like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen dominated, when the general bar for art wasn't all that high to begin with.
But this was the post-platinum era of cutthroat competition. On Jump alone, one stunning series after another was waiting in the wings: One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, Bleach, The Prince of Tennis. The lineup was merciless.
If his manga got cancelled because the art was too rough, Kai might as well throw himself off a bridge.
"Anyway, that's where things stand." Heishi nodded, and then his expression sharpened. "Next up is..."
"Serialization."
"This time, I'd like you to use the concept of purifying the world with the Death Note as the main storyline..."
"About that," Kai picked up his kraft paper bag, "I've already put together a preliminary storyboard for the serialization. Would you take a look?"
"Already?" Heishi blinked in surprise.
He looked at Kai, noticed the dark circles carved deep under his eyes, and understood immediately how hard the young man had been pushing himself.
Satisfaction practically radiated off of him.
"It's actually only one chapter," Kai said with an embarrassed smile. "I thought I could finish three chapters in one night, but it turns out I underestimated how much work the storyboards would take."
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