บท 16: Determination and Passion

And so I apologized to everyone for worrying and lying to them, in all honesty, I am still shocked by the results of the contest. We were called to meet our editor in the SAESHA office to know the comments from the judges and give his opinion on our work. I went with Yasuyuki as he is our story writer.

"We are half an hour early, let's go walk around while we have some extra time."

Yasu seems to be a bit nervous and got loads of things inside his head.

"Yeah, we came here unprepared. I literally don't know what we are going to talk about, aside from the comments and reviews."

We came here unsure about what we are going to talk about, I literally still can't believe we are doing this.

"Let's just answer whatever questions they ask."

Yasu replied unenthusiastically and put both of his behind his head.

"Yeah, right."

I looked at him and nodded in agreement.

"Come let's head over to the convenience store and see the latest issue."

So we came over to this convenience store and grab some grubs then scan over the latest issue. And we saw an interview chapter of Hanako or known for her pen name 'Makaino Joji'.

"I still can't believe Hanako is your cousin."

I mused as I literally still can't believe it, surprising and shocking.

"Even I can't imagine all about her, she is a happy-go-lucky girl. She's the type of girl that wants to be treated like a princess."

Yasu says those words and in the end, gave a creepy smile.

"Your face shows it all, you have no choices of your perversion tendencies. Either family or friends as long as you can have it."

I looked at him with a straight face.

"Well, look at her answers pretty interesting right."

Yasu handed me a copy of the weekly magazine.

'I transferred to a school where my cousin is studying and his childhood friend established the mangaka club there, although the school was in the dark because of the previous misconceptions. The club president and his friends are doing their best to bring it back to the light, and I love their passion and determination that is why I decided to join them.'

That was Hanako's answer in the interview.

"That's what I saw on you, during those days we were making the SECRET SCHOOL CLUB."

Yasu looks straight at the SAESHA building.

"Yeah, thank you for everything."

I turn towards him and grabs his shoulder then smile.

"But don't think of that I'll go that line."

Yasu smirks at me.

"AAAAH what are you suggesting?!"

I clearly understood his reference.

"HAHAHAHA! Alright, times up let's go?"

We head our way to SAESHA's office.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

The guard approaches us,

"Ah, yeah, we have an appointment for our editor."

Yasu's clearly nervous and it was clear from his voice.

"Oh, please head towards the front desk and she'll call your editor."

The guard points towards a girl in an office dress.

"Thank you so much!"

We then entered the building and was astonished by its simplistic design.

"Welcome, do you have an appointment?"

The attendant smiles,

"Ah, Yes we do have an appointment at 3'o clock with Kiichi Naru of Weekly Shokunen Jade."

Yasu, I know you're nervous but you could just calm down you are shaking.

"Wait...a minute, I'll call them for you… Hi, there are students looking for Mr.Kiichi Naru….Yes, understand. Bye."

The attendant puts down the phone and pointed towards the cubicles in the lobby.

"Please proceed to cubicle number 8, and Mr.Kiichi Naru will come to you shortly."

As she instructed we headed towards the cubicles and as we get closer to the area my heart started to tighten as the environment went from calm to tense, the hair in the back of my neck slowly rising and I felt cold. That is when I found out that aiming for something like serialization and becoming a professional mangaka isn't that easy.

"Are you guys,Yasuyuki Okamura and Kenji Yoshikawa?"

A man entered our cubicle, then he introduced himself.

"I'm Kiichi Naru, your assigned editor. I'll read you the comments from the judges although I am not allowed to show this one."

Kiichi sits down in front of us with a sheet of paper where the said comments of the judges are printed.

"First of, I'll introduce the judges. Kaho Yoshimitsu, Oda Tsugumi, Jinji Eto, BASSATSU Prod., and our assistant editors-in-chief"

We just sat there quietly and let him continue speaking.

"All of the professional mangaka's gave you pretty good scores, but our editors gave you low scores do you know why?"

Kiichi looked at us in curiosity as to why we made the manga.

"We don't really know."

Yasu scratches his head and smiled awkwardly.

"HAHAHA, I see just relax I won't eat you alive, this is very nostalgic for first-timers coming around here, anyway the genre is a mystery, which doesn't really suit the Shokunen Jade's readers taste, well some I think but as a subgenre."

Kiichi gave his first round of review then continued,

"Overall, I think this is a well-written story piece of mystery and slice of life, for those people who are into it. However, this is like more of a novel than a manga. The narration is too long and the conversations are too much explanatory."

We were shocked about what he called our manga, A novel, right he called it a novel.

"You see, the manga is like the western comics. The story should be told by the art and the characters, not by the storytelling itself."

Kiichi took a brief pause and stared at us for a second,

"Would you like some coffee or tea?"

He asked and pulls out the telephone

"Y-Yeah, Thanks, I'll have a coffee."

Yasu still can't get over the shock that his story was called a novel rather than a manga.

"I'll have coffee too."

I replied in a calm manner, then I proceed to ask.

"Could you please tell us what is a JADE-like story?"

I asked an obvious question to Mr.Kiichi as I am bugged to what he means that our story wasn't cut off in SHOKUNEN JADE.

"Let's look at two examples, here, You see your protagonist is more of an ordinary person than this one, BARUTO he may be a ninja but he has flashy superpowers, of course, it would be bad if the whole magazine just shows some protagonist with superpowers but…. Your story is good it's just that your protagonist is a little too weak."

Kiichi gave me a serious look on his face as he was explaining things to us.

"By the way, how is my art?"

I want to know if I have also flaws with my art for I am just new.

"I think you have very good drawing skills, but you still have flaws. Perhaps, you're new to using pens? Even so, the judges gave you pretty good scores of 3 because I think they see room for improvement, they don't want you to feel down."

Kiichi answered my question straightforwardly as he scans the sheet of paper to look at my scores.

"You're illustrations, however, are not manga art, these are too realistic. As for the background, they separate from the characters, but they look the same."

I see I was thinking of making it to my own art style but it doesn't work that way.

"Kenji just started practicing dip pens 3 months ago, also someone does our art, side characters, and effects."

Yasu explained why the illustrations are too scattered.

"I remember now, you're a school club. No wonder, you still have long ways to go but no worries all have to do is keep on practicing, trying to adjust to the art style and you will surely get good at it."

Kiichi finally told us the last comments and thoughts about our manga, wrote down his personal email address, and phone number then hands over his business card.

After that, he continued to tell us his opinions about our work, he was complimenting quite a lot but for me, or Yasu it was all a constructive criticism for us to improve a lot better.

Then we talked a lot more about our work and personal things.