Chapter 9: Chapter 09
"Hello, Shonen Jump here, I am Koji Yoshida, what can we do for you?" a heavy voice came from the telephone. I guess it is a middle age-old man who responded to my call.
"Hello, my name is Hiroyuki Hori, and I want to submit my manga. What should I do?"
"Hmm, where do you live right now?"
"I live in Miyagi. Will that be a problem Yoshida-san?"
"No, it will not be a problem. Do you want to go by yourself to our office or do you want to send it to my fax?"
"I will send it to your fax if that is okay for you."
"Okay, you can send it to xxx-xxxxxxx. Oh, also don't forget to write your phone number too. I will call you back in 2 hours."
"Okay, thank you Yoshida-san." I close the telephone and begin to send my manga to Yoshida-san's fax. After it's done, It will be a waiting game for me.
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Yoshida PoV
My name is Koji Yoshida. I am 28 years old, and I have been working as an editor at Shonen Jump for 7 years. Last year, I have been promoted as a captain editor with six junior editors on my team right now. It is all thanks to the manga 'Rurouni Kenshin' from Nobuhiro Watsuki-sensei whom I helped for almost five years. But after that, there are no good newcomers coming to me until now.
Speaking of newcomers, I hear Yujiro Hattori, my co-worker, bragging about his genius high school mangaka to other editors. Tsk, A lucky bastard, I thought with an annoyed face. But after reading his manga, I have to admit though, that the newcomer Yujiro (we call him by his first name because we have two people with Hattori's name on the office, him and Akira Hattori) bring right now is the best rookie this year. If there are no good rookies coming again, everyone in the editorial can see that he will win the Tezuka Award.
Snapping from my thought, I am trying to focus on my work. I don't have any mangaka to help right now, so I will just watch my team's work and check the survey of the Shonen Jump this week. The result of early votes is coming, and Naruto is still in first place, I see. Well, after the negotiation between the editor and Kishimoto-sensei, that manga will be ended after a few more chapters, so we will need a new icon for Shonen Jump. It is not a bad thing though, that we will have a genius newcomer. Maybe he can be our front face in the future, I hummed.
A few minutes later, a voice from the telephone snapped my thought. It is time to work, I guess. I hope that this time, there will be a good newcomer that comes to me.
Pulling the telephone, I start the conversation with my best professional voice.
"Hello, Shonen Jump here, I am Koji Yoshida, what can we do for you?"
"Hello, my name is Hiroyuki Hori, and I want to submit my manga. What should I do?" Hoo.. A newcomer. I hope that he is good. Then I start to ask the standard question to the newcomer,
"Hmm, where do you live right now?"
"I live in Miyagi. Will that be a problem Yoshida-san?" That would be a problem, I muttered. If he wants to work with us, it will be good if he lives around Tokyo, so I can visit him if we need to discuss something. But for now, I will not tell him about that. I will see the manga first, and if it is good, I will tell him about this problem.
"No, it will not be a problem. Do you want to go by yourself to our office or do you want to send it to my fax?"
"I will send it to your fax if that is okay for you."
"Okay, you can send it to xxx-xxxxxxx. Oh, also don't forget to write your phone number too. I will call you back in 2 hours."
"Okay, thank you Yoshida-san."
After waiting for fifteen minutes, I finally can read his manga. The title is Bakemono no Ko, with a child and a bear-like monster bringing a wooden sword in front of Akihabara as the cover. The drawing is good though. Better than the average rookie that we have right now. The detail of the background is breathtaking, and the character's design is cool. With that drawing quality, I hope that the story is good.
-1 hour later-
I take a long, deep breath. Damn, this manga is so awesome. I had a single tear in my eyes after reading this manga for the third time. If Yujiro's newcomer is a genius, this Hiroyuki's work is phenomenal. In fact, If people don't know, they will think that this is the work of someone professional. The character is awesome, the drawing is beautiful, the battle scene is intense, and the story is heartwarming. This is the best one-shot that I have ever read.
I sigh and start to think again. I hear that Yujiro and Chief-editor will visit the genius newcomer to his home in Aomori tomorrow to persuade him to go to Tokyo. I guess I also can ask the boss to take a leave to visit Hiroyuki-sensei in Miyagi tomorrow. I decided to discuss it with the boss today.
After knocking boss's door office and waiting for a minute, I hear the boss calling me,
"Come in!" After hearing his voice, I walk to his room and look at him. His name is Hisashi Sasaki, a strict old man who has the best judgment about manga in my opinion. In his prime time, He helped a lot of famous manga like Super Hero Legend and Yu-Gi-Oh, so all of the editors including me believed in his judgment. If he says the manga is good, then there is no doubt that the manga is really good, so hearing his opinion will convince me to work with Hiroyuki-sensei.
"Yoshida, what can I do for you?"
"Boss, can I take a trip to Miyagi tomorrow?" He just stares at the envelope that I bring and asks back,
"What happened? Is this a personal or business trip?"
"It is business, Sir. About one hour ago, I was called by a newcomer mangaka from Miyagi and ask about publishing his manga. After reading his work, I guess I have to bring him to Tokyo with me."
"That good, eh?"
"Yeah, you read it yourself, Boss. I think it is better than Yujiro's newcomer work." I bring Hiroyuki's manga to his table. He just raises one of his eyebrows and reads the manga quietly. After about 20 minutes of reading Bakemono no Ko, the Boss's reaction is something that really shocked my core. He has a tear in his eyes! Never in million years that I thought the boss will have a tear from manga. It somehow gives me a confident feeling about Hiroyuki-sensei.
After wiping his tears, he stares at me and speaks slowly and dramatically,
"Yoshida, Yujiro and I will bring Eiji Niizuma to Tokyo tomorrow. Do you have the confidence to bring alone this Hiroyuki Hori to Tokyo?" I nod without hesitation,
"I will try it, Boss."
"Good, I will give you this job. Use every negotiation skills that you have. I don't care if you have to use every resource that the office has, but you need to bring Hiroyuki to Tokyo by all means. If he makes a difficult demand, call me immediately. We will have Hiroyuki Hori and Eiji Niizuma as Shonen Jump's future icons." I was shocked at his declaration. This is a historical moment, and I am the one who witnesses it. I am really on fire. Now, it is time to call Hiroyuki-sensei.
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Author note:
The editor's reaction is more dramatic and exaggerated than I thought it would be, but I have a lot of fun writing about it. What do you think?
You can also read five more chapters at my patreon account, pat_reon.com/zwolf1 (without '_' ). Thank you.
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