"Trap Cards? What do they do?" Kazuki Takahashi asked with curiosity.
"They're usually cards that trigger effects during the opponent's turn, used for defense or counterattacks," Kai explained.
He continued, "Besides Trap Cards, you could also add a Tribute mechanic. For example, sacrifice two cards on the field to summon a stronger monster."
"Oh!" Takahashi's eyes lit up. "I'll definitely use this down the line!"
He was genuinely excited by Kai's ideas, but he still had a pile of mini-games he wanted to draw first. He'd circle back to cards once his well of inspiration ran dry.
"You are truly quick-witted and one of a kind."
"Not at all, not at all." Kai waved his hands, embarrassed.
In truth, he'd only read through the Duelist Kingdom arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! and didn't remember the later mechanics. Otherwise, he could have laid out the entire card game system in one sitting.
Shin Horikawa watched the exchange between Kai and Takahashi, then lowered his head, his heart a tangle of complicated feelings.
"Is this what a genius looks like?"
Just by thinking for a moment, the man could toss out ideas that left everyone in awe.
If what Kai described actually made it into Yu-Gi-Oh!, the series would be incredible. Far more compelling than the mini-games Horikawa had helped Takahashi brainstorm over the years.
The ideas he'd racked his brain to come up with couldn't hold a candle to a casual remark from a genius.
It made him feel something he hadn't felt in a long time.
Ashamed of his own limitations.
Half a day later, Kai said his goodbyes.
He'd gotten everything he came for, and it wasn't right to overstay his welcome.
After he left, Horikawa picked up the manuscript pages Kai had drawn during his time in the studio and started examining them. His eyes went wide almost immediately.
"The shadows and perspective are spot-on. The lines are smooth, the proportions are solid. Compared to the Death Note one-shot, his growth is enormous. This is truly..."
"An insane rate of improvement."
...
Time passed, and May 12th arrived.
Weekly Shonen Jump went on sale right on schedule.
Readers grabbed their copies one after another, and someone noticed a piece of news splashed across the magazine's cover.
Death Note serialization countdown: two weeks!
In other words, on the 26th, the full serialized version of Death Note would appear before the public.
This was the manga that had taken first place in the Akamaru Jump reader rankings as a one-shot.
The work that readers were most excited about and most eager to see continue.
Shueisha was following through on that demand and giving Death Note a proper serialization. It should have been something that made countless people happy.
But...
"Isn't this the manga that teaches kids to curse people?"
"Shueisha is breeding murderers."
"Manga was never a good thing to begin with."
The backlash had begun.
Messages denouncing Death Note were piling up.
Facing the wave of public outrage, Shueisha stayed unmoved and chose to ride it out in silence.
They had plenty of experience dealing with parental complaints. Manga as a visual medium had been surrounded by controversy since its earliest days.
If a manga hadn't been complained about, it couldn't really call itself a hit.
In Japan, the tolerance for published works like novels and manga was extremely high. As long as the content didn't glorify wartime atrocities, it generally wouldn't be banned.
The people making noise right now weren't Weekly Shonen Jump readers. They weren't potential Jump customers. There was no reason to cater to them.
"Fujin, don't let these voices get to you." Heishi called to reassure Kai. "They can't influence Jump's decisions."
Kai was at Rin's house.
He was grateful for how she'd been looking after him lately.
Now that Heishi was on the phone, Kai suddenly felt a pang of guilt toward his editor.
The man was running himself ragged on Kai's behalf, and here he was, privately spending time with a star editor from a rival magazine.
This really wasn't right.
"No... I don't mind."
Kai lowered his voice and answered weakly.
'He is still upset.' Heishi looked up from his desk and sighed.
It was understandable. A rookie manga artist with no experience, facing this kind of widespread public criticism. How could anyone keep a calm head through that?
He was worried, so he reported the situation to Kazuhiko Torishima.
Torishima smiled. "That's actually a good thing. When you're creating something as unconventional as Death Note, the more pressure the author feels, the more authentic the result. If Fujin were too cheerful, I'd worry he'd end up drawing Death Note like a comedy."
"Editor-in-Chief, you really are..." Heishi swallowed the rest of the sentence. "Ruthless."
Heishi left the office, and Torishima dropped the smile.
Fujin was under pressure?
So was he.
Facing opposition from every corner of society, the top brass at Shueisha had specifically called him in for a dressing-down.
If he hadn't dug his heels in and sworn on his career that Death Note would be a massive hit with the potential to save Jump, the manga would have been killed by an order from above.
Torishima had put a lot on the line for this.
Now all he could do was quietly hope that Death Note would deliver.
'First place in the rankings. First volume selling over a million in its first year. A successful anime adaptation. A live-action drama. A movie…'
'As if.' He shook his head, scattering the daydream. "I'm getting carried away."
"That's not right. A man should keep his feet on the ground."
...
Rin's voice was soft. After a full day of work and dealing with the unreasonable demands of her own manga artists, she still had to come home and comfort Kai.
"Fujin, are you alright?"
Kai listened to her voice and wondered how effective her manuscript nagging was on the artists she managed.
There was zero pressure in her tone. If anything, listening to her was pleasant.
"Fujin?"
Seeing Kai zone out, Rin called his name again.
'Poor Fujin. He finally landed a serialization, only to get hit with a tidal wave of public backlash.'
'Look at him. So wound up and worried he can't even form words. Just sitting there, dazed, like a capybara.'
"A little," Kai said, lowering his head and letting a hint of vulnerability show. "Thank you for caring."
Girls always showed their gentle side when a man looked fragile, right?
"That kind of mindset won't do." Rin knelt down across from Kai and started a whole lecture. "As a manga artist, you need to get your head straight immediately."
"You're going to be facing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of readers. Their opinions will be all over the map. There will be praise. There will be mockery. And there will be vicious personal attacks."
"If you choose to be a manga artist, you need to develop the thick skin to match."
"If you can't handle that, you'd be better off quitting now."
Kai hadn't expected Rin to switch into full editor mode on him.
"Eh?!" He blinked, then recovered. "I understand."
In the time that followed, Rin used her professional expertise to lay out the full picture of the situation for Kai: what had happened, why it had happened, and how he should handle it going forward.
By the time Kai stood up to go home, his back looked a little unsteady.
'Was I too harsh?' Rin thought, touching her lips.
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