[4] Manga

"Hmm? This... I remember it was serialized before," Iwamoto Yu said with some confusion as he looked at the first few pages.

"Ah, that's because I felt the previous drawings weren't that good. So, during this time, I redrew these pages, hoping to use them when the tankōbon is released..."

'I see... assistants, huh?' Iwamoto Yu thought to himself. 'It's very likely that he has more than one assistant to be able to continue serialization and even redraw the previous chapters. Who would believe there are no assistants involved?'

In reality...

There were indeed no assistants.

Kazuya, with Rohan Kishibe's abilities, had continuously improved his drawing skills as he worked on his manga.

By now, he felt that he had made significant progress compared to the early parts of the ongoing "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure." As a result, he had chosen to redraw everything, especially since the current storyline was approaching its first climax.

"How does it feel?" Kazuya asked when they had almost reached the last page of the manga.

Iwamoto Yu's expression wasn't very pleased as he commented, "The protagonist just died?"

"Yes, that's right," Kazuya nodded.

"Ah... the story is good, and the artwork is excellent... but the death of the protagonist is a bit hard to accept. If you plan to end it like this, it's one thing, but according to what you said, this is only the first part, right?" Iwamoto Yu said in confusion. From a reader's perspective, it was indeed a good manga, but he thought this was the first part. Did that mean there was a second part where the protagonist would be resurrected?

"No, that's not the case. The main character changes, and the second part features the grandson of the first part's main character. Anyway, I've already finished drawing the first three parts. Let me show you," Kazuya explained and began searching for the completed manuscripts on the nearby shelf.

Upon hearing this, Iwamoto Yu furrowed his brow. He wasn't pleased with Kurokawa Kazuya's attitude. He thought Kurokawa Kazuya was overly confident.

Yes, it was arrogance.

He hadn't even asked for his editor's opinion before hastily drawing so much. Well, it wasn't right to say that. In such a short time, it was generally impossible to complete so much work. How many assistants did he have, if any?

Furthermore, could he afford to hire so many assistants? Even if they were ghostwriters, did he have the money for it?

Although this room was nice, it didn't scream wealth. It was impossible to tell if he was exceptionally rich. But if he wasn't using ghostwriters or many assistants, it didn't make sense.

Did he really have that much money?

"All right, here they are," Kazuya said, taking out the two large stacks of manuscript pages from the folder and placing them on the table.

Iwamoto Yu's mouth twitched, further confirming his suspicions. This quantity... it must be over a thousand pages, right? Even if he calculated it as drawing four to five pages a day without a break, it would still take over a year. No, given this thickness... it might be over two thousand pages!

Even with that calculation, he could work continuously for over two years. If he serialized it, he could continue for several years!

He opened the package and didn't look at the content but instead examined the artwork briefly. It was all extremely well-drawn, as though someone had spent decades immersed in the world of manga, far superior to the earlier works.

Were these his pre-existing drafts?

Did he accumulate this much material over two years before submitting it?

But that didn't make sense. If he had drafts from the start, why were the initial submissions so rough? While they were still good, they couldn't compare to these recent works.

It just didn't add up. He couldn't wrap his head around it. In his three years as an editor, this was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

"Perhaps you didn't consider one thing—my drawing speed," Kazuya said, picking up a pen from the side.

"Hmm?" Iwamoto Yu was puzzled. "What do you mean?" As he observed this young man who seemed to have figured something out, Iwamoto Yu felt uncertain. Drawing speed? Was this a joke?

"Well, this manga's first chapter has only three pages left, so if you have some time, you can sit here for half an hour. Half an hour should be enough."

"Huh?" Iwamoto Yu looked at the manga manuscript pages on the table. There were three of them in total. He had examined them earlier and felt that the story was impressive, giving him an unusual sense of reality. However, the first chapter wasn't even complete yet, and he couldn't grasp the specifics.

"Thirty minutes for three pages? Are you saying that you can finish three original manuscript pages in thirty minutes?" Iwamoto Yu was incredulous. "No, it's impossible, right? Did I hear you wrong? Completing three original manuscript pages in just thirty minutes... even top mangaka can't do that, let alone original manuscripts. What are you thinking? This is impossible!"

Scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble...

Right as Kazuya contemplated for a few seconds with a pen in hand, he began drawing at an incredibly fast pace without hesitation.

"You don't even do rough drafts? No... this can't be, such a complex composition, and you're not planning to do a rough draft? And... what's the quality of this? It's so fast, you've already drawn the backgrounds! This... is this for real? No rough draft?" Iwamoto Yu watched, his forehead covered in sweat.

Kazuya briefly paused, then lightly flicked the pen in his hand.

"This... is this something a human can do? I couldn't see it clearly earlier, but what is this? Are you kidding me? Is this shading? You're applying ink directly, and it's landing exactly where it should without any errors! Is this really shading?"

He felt like his understanding of the world had been shattered that day. Handwork that should have been done carefully with a pen was being done so absurdly fast by Kurokawa Kazuya.

"Is the shading done?" Iwamoto Yu looked at his watch. "Twenty... twenty-seven minutes..."

"Is that so? Three minutes faster than I expected..." Kazuya commented. He had initially thought that drawing an original manga would be slower, but perhaps he had grown accustomed to it.

"Are you... really human?" Iwamoto Yu said in disbelief. With this speed, it explained why there were so many original manuscripts...

While others toiled and couldn't finish six original manuscripts even working twenty hours a day with assistants, Kurokawa Kazuya managed to complete them in just one hour!

It was several times faster than ordinary people, beyond comprehension.

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