26 Debut?!
There are about a thousand students in Inari Okami High School, so in order to make sales, we would need to sell to 12% of the student body.
To begin with, our market is not limited to the students of this school. The Inari Okami High School Cultural Festival is free for all, so even regular townspeople would come and some from the school's connections.
As the Cultural Festival takes place from Thursday to Saturday, most visitors would opt to visit on Saturday, the third day. However, I have no idea that this many guests would come and contribute to the sales nor would be interested in coming to see our place.
Nami has already mentioned above how disadvantageous the Mangaka Club Room's space and location were. So there is another problem, but we can't change locations now as we have already spread out our promotion materials.
"People are lining up already outside so let's make this meeting quick." I voiced out calling everyone's attention.
"So, I'll be redoing your assignments and will be your task until the last day, Fumi, you have to get your uncle to provide those benches and will be assisting the headcounts, Nami, Nagi, you will be the one assigned to the accounting, Kozue, you'll do the serving of food and drinks for our waiting guests. Hanako, Kanna, and Friends, you continue as the promotions team, don't forget to get materials for our social media posts... Lastly, Yasuyuki, you're with me in the distributions."
"Understood." Everyone agreed, and proceed to their tasks.
"By the way, I am invited to the basketball team. I was thinking of playing under the name of the mangaka club. By achieving a good result, we would increase the club's popularity!" Yasuyuki jumped in excitement.
"That's great, but we won't be there to watch you play," I commented with a sigh for I was a bit lonely that we can't be there.
"That's fine." Yasu smiled brightly,
"I'll be joining some competitions then, representing the mangaka club," Hanako suggested as she was motivated by Yasu's idea.
I looked at the clock and said, "So it's roughly decided then? Hanako will go join some contests, let Kanna and her friends do the promotions, and Yasuyuki will play for the basketball team under the mangaka club. Good luck to you both. "
"Yes, so we should better make our way now." Hanako rushed to the contests committee.
"Well, now that things are decided, we should get going. We don't have much time," I said while looking at the clock on the wall.
"Then let us proceed with our allotted tasks. We should try to sell as many art books as possible." Nami opened our doors to start our day.
[500 COPIES STARTING]
"Thank you for your purchase, hope you'll enjoy our cultural festival…"
After a few numbers of people, some familiar faces arrived on the scene, it was our editor, Mr. Kiichi, the substitute editor, Mr. Nozumi with my father, the school director, and the editor-in-chief as well.
"Welcome to the mangaka club, I didn't know you are visiting?" I'm still surprised by this, as I never expected these faces would turn up.
"Well, it is the cultural festival after all. So we came by surprise, so you won't be expecting such an important guest." My father replied as he looks around our club room. "Hey, Kenji, you sure you didn't bring your porn magazines here by accident." My father jokingly added which made everyone laughed.
"What are you trying to suggest to our guests? That we make such explicit things in the club. I'm not like the school director you know." I jokingly replied, "By the way, your youngest daughter is around here somewhere in the cosplay set that the school director has gifted her on her birthday." I added.
More people have gathered in our comedic exchange and as well to see the school director get put in the hot seat.
"Oy, what are you suggesting the students might misunderstand our conversation." Mr. Hitoshi voiced out in a troubled voice.
"I should've known, I should have burned it long ago! But...but my precious daughter loves it so much, that I just can't bear to see her face in despair."
"Hey, hey, people here are getting different ideas. Come on, let's get to the topic of why are you here. Oh, before that all of you pay 300 yen, and here is a copy of our art book, with the revised version of our first manga."
"This feels like I am being exploited by my own mangaka. HAHAHA," Mr. Miura jokingly stated and took interest in our art book. "Not bad, we can add this to your pages."
Huh, pages what does he mean? Is there something they're not yet telling us.
[375 COPIES REMAINING]
"Well, Kenji the thing is you are now serialized for SHOKUNEN JADE."
I cleared my throat in order to not stutter,
"Is that for real?!" I'm shocked.
"Yes, I know you're quite, no, I mean surely is surprised but it is true, after a long hour of deliberation we thought that your manga is good work for the mystery genre."
I was so lost in my thoughts that I couldn't hear anyone other than my breathing, then a roar of excitement could be heard from the direction of the clubroom. People are cheering and congratulating us on becoming a professional mangaka.
I looked back at the editor-in-chief and he stood up, "Congratulations, your manga is interesting and we are glad to be working with you soon." then we exchange hands.
The cheer from the crowd, the longing passion, the hard work of the mangaka club members.
"Thank you for giving us a chance! I'll work hard on keeping my manga under SHOKUNEN JADE!" and I shook his hands.
"Alright, Kenji, congratulations, but you still have to defeat me." My father tapped my shoulders and left.
"Yeah, I'll surpass you soon enough." I proudly declared and accepted my father's challenge.
"By the way, I'm coming back to the industry. Let's do our best."
"Yeah, let's do our best."
I can't believe it, my father is going back to being a mangaka but is he serious or he is just playing with me so I'll set the bar high on our manga.
Since we got time on our handstand only a few people are now in line but we still got plenty of copies. I suddenly got an idea and asked Nagi to man the distribution, then I run with haste to the newspaper club and the school's broadcasting club.
"Nagi, please switch up with me, I just need to do something I'll be back before the day's end.
[ 315 COPIES REMAINING]
"Good afternoon, Tanaka-san. Can the Wall Newspaper Club please write a story about the Classics Club?"
However, even Tanaka-san's eyes went wide after what I said. I wonder what it was that I said wrong? Then,
Tanaka-san turned to glance at the other club members before turning back to me and said "W-We found the gem! You helped us a lot, we were just talking about a topic for later." Tanaka holds my hand and can't stop shaking it.
"I'm glad, sorry that this is too sudden but here are the details, and you can add an interview portion on it as well." I gave the details, answered their questions, and a scanned copy of a few parts of the artbook. "Thank you, I'll be heading to the broadcasting club and tell them about your release time, so you guys can distribute the papers with them."
"Thanks, that'll be a huge help."
It was past 10:00 A.M. when the school broadcasting club went on air for the morning greetings with relaxing classical music being played in the background, the broadcasting club is assigned to relay the latest hot topics during the Kamiyama High School Cultural Festival to our guests.
About 30 minutes had passed when the broadcast went to do a recorded interview and give me a chance to promote which says as follows;
"Greetings, this is Kenji Yoshikawa, I am the president of the mangaka club, and here to announce a special announcement, earlier our editor and the editor-in-chief of SHOKUNEN JADE visited our club room, and with that from this day onward we, the mangaka club is now serialized under the publishing company SHOKUNEN JADE. Our dream of becoming professionals have not been in our reach if it wasn't for the support of the students, our friends, and our families. This is a massive leap of faith towards our original goal of clearing the school's name in the dark and bring it back to light. The legacy of the mangaka club which my father has founded continues."
By advertising via a radio broadcast and the school newspaper, I thought they could achieve moderate success, but I was mistaken. As I returned to our clubroom a line that goes around from the end of the floor down to the next can be sighted.
Everyone cheered us on and congratulated us, then the day continues, as our copies are sold one by one with a smile on our faces, my hands didn't feel numb as I sign the copies. I guess the adrenaline of my excitement of becoming a professional manga is what keeps me energized.
[115 COPIES REMAINING]
"I guess that's it, we are closing doors now." I take a look around the hall and there is no sight of any new guests, but before I shut the door, I heard voices coming. It was Kanna and her friends but why are Kanna's voice trouble and sound like she was crying.
"Kanna, what happened, why are you crying?" I tried to ask but she couldn't speak, so her friend told me the story.
"There was this guy, I don't know who he was but he was creepy and kept acting weird around Kanna. So we approached him then he grabbed Kanna and told us he was her older brother, so we knew it was trouble. But the guy fought back and tear Kanna's costume so she cried."
After hearing the story, I was furious to the point that I went and grab the baseball bat, "Tell me, where he is."
"Kenji, wait...don't make any sudden actions." Nami tried to stop me, but I can't just let this pass.
"Tell me, is he still here?" I had my intention set to beat up the guy, then a member of the school festival committee arrived.
"Are you Kenji, is your sister here? We would like to ask her, we believe we caught the guy that they reported, will you please come with us."
"Sure, thank you, the school committee just saves that guy from his life."
So Kanna and her friends confirmed it was the person who harassed my little sister and was brought to jail. I guess I have a huge story to tell my father and the school director. This might affect the school's reputation again big time.
