40 Otterpop

A week later after our first chapters were submitted, we received a call from Mr. Kiichi,

"Hello, mangaka club we already got samples from the printer? Would you like me to send them to you?"

"Eh! You already got a sample? Yes! We want copies!" I replied with thrill and excitement.

The thought of seeing our work in print was thrilling and exciting.

"I can't wait to see it, I don't know how to react!" Yasuyuki crouches down in the corner of the clubroom shaking intensely.

"Ora! I bought snacks for us to munch while reading our manga." Nagi with three plastic bags full of chips and drinks.

While the other members of the club haven't arrived yet, Yasuyuki, Nagi, and I are circling around the clubroom waiting for the copies to arrive.

"How long are we going to wait….I can't control my emotions, I might cry, jump in joy, AAAAH I seriously don't know."

Yasuyuki's circling around like he lost a huge amount of money in the lottery.

I started munching with the snacks, then Kozue, Nami, Fumi, Hanako, and Kanna finally arrive.

"What is going on with the three of you?" Kozue asks confused about what's going on?

"The-the samples are coming, Mr.Kiichi is coming to give us the samples."

"WHAAAAAAAAAT" They all were surprised…

And now it is not just us three but all of us circling around the clubroom don't know what to do.

Then it's finally here…

We all stopped and synchronically turned our attention at Mr. Kiichi,

"Whoa, I think I went inside a wasps' nest...you all are scary."

Mr. Kiichi commented surprised.

I approached Mr. Kiichi in a flash looking suspicious, "Do you have it."

"Why is this like a drug deal?!" Mr. Kiichi backed off a little.

"Guys calm down, I have it and a little surprise too." He handed over our copies.

"THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" We all bowed deeply excited to read our manga.

The first thing we noticed was the big letters on the front page saying "A group of talented young people of a certain school mangaka club!"

We started reading our work first and the tagline on the title said, "It is like the next big hit manga of Japan, next to The Road of Pirate King."

"Whoa! You saw the tagline, we're second to the biggest manga of all time!" Yasuyuki implored…

"Yeah, I know right I am even more motivated to work on our next chapter!" Nagi responded.

I read our work three times and I know for sure they did too.

Then I started reading others work,

"Wow, this guy is really amazing too...The story unfolds fast, and it's really exciting, so I feel like I wanted to read more of it that I can't wait for next release." I implored

"What was the title you are reading," Fumi asked.

"Blade of the Stranger, it is so good the synopsis caught my attention instantly," I replied and started comparing ours.

"Indeed, it is beautifully written, unlike ours, we depended on our strengths and knowledge," Nami added to my statement.

"This is good, I must have read ours like a hundred times to be able to compare, as well as the genre is different from ours, so you can say it is totally better than ours," Kozue commented on our statements.

"No, yours is better." Mr. Kiichi then started to talk, "Oh, sorry but in my opinion, your manga is much more enjoyable than his comparing genres, he obviously won, however for the fun and excitement yours definitely took it. So that is why you won the editor's choice."

"What?!" I was surprised that we won an award.

"You might haven't noticed it, they're around the corner of your first page." Mr.Kiichi pointed it out.

"Yeah, I found it, it's really there!" Yasuyuki's reaction is exaggerated.

"May I ask, how and why?" Fumi asked Mr.Kiichi for reasons.

"Your story, your art, and your positive energy are a perfect match. You guys bring the best out of each other and that is the reason why we thought you are deserving of the award, and to be honest with you, your group's positive energy and support for one another can't be matched by any other groups in the industry."

"T-Thank you very much." Fumi returns to read the manga,

"Blade of the Stranger is also great but the other battle manga will drain away his audience, whereas your story is quite different so you have no competition at all." Mr. Kiichi added,

However, I felt like what we are currently having isn't enough and we have to do something about it.

"But if you'd put us in a one-on-one match, we won't definitely be near his skills right?" I asked in a serious tone.

"No, the magazine will always have a variety of genres, so thinking about it that way would definitely give a huge gap. However, you should be more concerned in the surveys, the results from the readers are the most important."

I could see the seriousness overwhelming the room as soon as Mr. Kiichi mentioned the surveys.

I remember talking about it with my father the other day,

[Masao Yoshikawa's POV]

"Kenji, what you should be worried about is the surveys."

"What's with the surveys?"

"All the series in JADE are ranked by these reader surveys weekly, it's serious business. Every week you will have to battle different fighters like a gladiator in the colosseum. I've been through that before it's like heaven and hell, battling for the top one is really tough so one mistake can be your downfall."

"I see, I'll make sure to conquer that as well."

"That's been my experience so you should also experience it."

"When will we know the results of the surveys."

"Let see if I can remember, there are two results, the early and the final results...I never asked to get the early results because for me it was just an appetizer for your excitement, so I've always ask Miura to give the final results."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind when we talk about it."

********

"So about this survey results, I've spoken to my father about the other day, and explained to me its importance, but could you explain how you do it?" I asked

Mr.Kiichi crossed his arms and closed his eyes, "So you've probably already known about the early results and final results, I'll explain the details as for the early results we count them by hand with the first hundred surveys that arrived at JADE and then for the final result we run them through a computer and we will get the detailed number of votes for the first place, second place, third place, so on and so forth."

"That's insane! So you count them twice then give us the results."

"We can give you the early results if you want to, although the final results are what decides everything," Mr.Kiichi looked at me.

"I would only like to get the final results because I want to keep the excitement and the thrill so we could be more motivated to making manga while anticipating the results," I answered with a ferocious smile looking at Mr. Kiichi

Mr. Kiichi also gets back at me as he knows what I'm pointing out.

"Well, my job here is done..about your manga in my opinion I think this is going to do well, but again like I said on our first meeting I can't guarantee what is going to be popular so be prepared for anything. Good luck!"

Mr. Kiichi gave us his last advice. "Start thinking about your next chapter and let me have a look at it while we still have time."

"Yes, thank you so much!" We bid farewell to Mr. Kiichi,

In our next chapter, we really have to do something about that it will be our starting point whether we will win in the surveys, so we must be very careful about what we are going to make.

We should have a serious discussion after this....while the excitement and thrill are still within our hearts...

"Phew, reader surveys...huh…" Yasuyuki commented with a sigh.

"Everyone, sorry to be keeping you at this hour I just want to give my opinion." I looked at everyone one by one. "We may seem to have a great start but I don't think what we are doing is enough after reading the other manga."

Everyone raised their eyebrows and caught their attention.

"I want us to stay in the competition, how about you?"

Yasuyuki raised his hands, "I can write the stories, but can you keep up with your drawing." looking at me with a challenging stare.

I gave it a smirked, "who do you think you are talking to?"

Yasu gave back the smirked, "I do, just like we do back then?"

"Yeah, but this time it's a different fight."

"I got you!"

The other members of the club just stared at us back and forth curious about what we are talking about.

"Hey, don't leave us curious?" Nagi pouted and stomped her feet.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, it's about our childhood dream, being able to sell at Comiket," Yasuyuki replied.

"Comiket, huh." Nagi looked up, "I see, what you are getting on with."

Yasu and I just laughed at Nagi's realization.