Chapter 21

"Why do you want to go to Tokyo? And why all of sudden?" Kiyoko asked me curiously.

"Well, do you remember the job I take before the match?" She nodded. "It is not just a writer. I draw a manga and send it to the Weekly Shonen Jump. And yesterday, the editor from those magazines wants me to go to his office to talk about something." She looked surprised for a while before asking,

"Why didn't you say that you draw manga from the beginning?" She asked interrogatively. I shrugged.

"It is not like that would make it through the magazine, so I want to tell you only if the manga is successful. And the editor asked me with an excited tone, so I think he will give me good news. Besides, from what I look, you didn't have much interest in manga."

"Hmm.. I can see where it comes from. But for your information, I read and followed the latest issue of Weekly Shounen Jump too, so I probably know which one is your manga."

"Really?" I cannot help but ask with a skeptical tone.

"Yeah. I read it so I can understand what my friends speaking. Fortunately, I didn't have to buy it every week because my friend will lend it to me." I snorted

"So you tell me the reason you read it is that you want to understand the conversation between your friends?"

"Yup. I even watch a Korean drama or listened to idol groups sometimes. By understanding what my friends said, I will build an image as a good friend and good listener, and they will be more open toward me. You can call it a long-term investment because we don't know which friends of us will we need in the future."

"How Slytherin of you," I muttered. She let out a cute giggle at that.

"Good Harry Potter reference. But I think I will stick with Ravenclaw. "Of course she did, I thought. Honestly, with the number of books she has read since we lived together, she will be a good Ravenclaw.

"But back to the topic, which manga have you drawn?" She asked.

"Well, you will not read it until it gets released, so you will need to wait about it okay?" She pouted, not happy about my refusal to answer but didn't push it either.

"So, what do you think? Do you want to go to Tokyo tomorrow?" She nodded eagerly, showing her enthusiasm.

-break-

A day after that, I found myself sitting on the train with Kiyoko. We leave right after we finished our breakfast, at 6.00 a.m. It will be at least two hours of travel by shinkansen before we arrived at Tokyo station. Fortunately, Shonen Jump's headquarter is at the center of the city, so we didn't have to walk too far to get there.

"So Kiyo-chan, do you have any plan or any place you want to visit?"

"Not really. But it has been a long time since I went to Tokyo, so I probably want to look around." Hmm.. My mind is running fast, thinking about where to bring Kiyoko. I doubt she wants to go to some crowded place like Shibuya or Harajuku, So I need to avoid a place like that. The problem is, that Tokyo is the most populated city in Japan, so everywhere we go will be filled with crowds. And then, Hiroyuki's old memories popped into my mind, giving me an idea.

"We are not going to explore Tokyo today, sorry. But after we are done with my business for Jump, I will bring you to a small café my friend owns. I bet you will like it. And before we go home, I want to visit a special place for me if that is alright."

"That is fine for me. We can explore it together after I got accepted into Tohoku University next year." I give her a small smile as a thank you gesture. "And what is this special place? What kind of café will we visit if you are so sure that I will like it?" She cannot help but be curious.

"Well, you will see the café later." I smile mysteriously. "And as for the special place, it is the grave of my mother figure when I grew up in the orphanage, so I want to pay tribute to her."

"Oh.." Her smile dropped after hearing what I said. The mood turned somber, and we keep silent for a while. Kiyoko decided to spend the rest of the journey reading a book she brings from the home.

"What book do you bring?" I asked, stealing a glance at the cover of the book. She turned her attention to me and replied, "It is Mitch Albom's book, Five people you meet in heaven. Have you read about it?" Hearing the title of the book, I start humming,

"You made me love you.. I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it..

You made me love you.. And all the time you know it, and all the time you know it.."

And by the end of my humming, I noticed that Kiyoko is also joining me, humming the song from the book.

"You have read it!" Kiyoko's eyes are shining brightly at me. I snorted,

"Of course, I have read it. It is my book after all." Then we spend our journey talking about the book, forgetting the grim topic before. Time flies so fast, and before we know it, we have already arrived at Tokyo station, one of the busiest train stations in Japan. After walking for at least 30 minutes, now, we are standing in front of Weekly Shonen Jump's headquarters.

"So this is the home of all the best manga in the world.." Kiyoko muttered, staring at the building with amazement. For me, this is the first time I have a chance to visit Jump's headquarters in my life, so I took my time to admire it. After five minutes, Kiyoko throws the important question,

"What do we do now?" This question snapped my thought from admiring the headquarter and walking through the main entrance.

"Welcome to Shonen Jump, what can we do for you?" The receptionist asked us right after we entered the building.

"My name is Hiroyuki Hori, and I have an appointment with Yoshida-san." I replied, stating my business. After confirming my business, the receptionist turned her attention back to me and said,

"Thank you for waiting. Yoshida-san will meet you in waiting room number five. Have a nice day."

"Thank you." We bowed and moved to the waiting room. After waiting for five more minutes, Yoshida-san arrived with a Jump magazine in his hand. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of Kiyoko, so I introduced her quickly.

"Good morning, Yoshida-san. This is my sister, Kiyoko Shimizu. Kiyo-chan, this is the editor I talked about, Koji Yoshida."

"Nice to meet you/nice to meet you." Both of them bowed at each other before we sit again.

"So, why do you need me?" I asked first, didn't see the point of small talking.

"Well for one, this is the preview edition of Jump that contained Bakemono no Ko. It will be released next edition. You can take a look at it." He sends me the Jump. I skim the book quickly, searching for my work. After finding Bakemono no Ko, I nodded, satisfied with the work, and gives the book to Kiyoko.

"This is my work. You can read it now and brag to your friends that you are the first one who read it." I give her a smug smile. As a result, she slapped my shoulder before taking the Jump from my hand.

"Your manga will be compared a lot with Niizuma's for Tezuka Award. Although I think you are better than him and you can win first place, we cannot be too overconfident. The judges have read the submission, but I don't know anything about what they thought. We also need to consider the survey from the readers, so everything is possible for now."

My mind is wandering around. The pay for getting published itself is good, about 9000 yen per page. So I will receive 450.000 yen for this. But it will be good to win the award. It definitely will help our money problem for a while. But I leave it for now because it will do me no good to count the chickens before they hatch.

"So, what do you need from me now?"

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Author note:

Mitch Albom is one of my favorite writers, and I highly recommend it to you who have finished all your want-to-list books and searching for the new one.

As for the song that Hiroyuki hummed on the train, the title is 'You Made Me Love You' by Patsy Cline. Google said that this song is popular in 1913. An ancient song that was mentioned in the book.

You can also read:

- Transmigrated Into Anime World as Kiyoko Shimizu's Older Brother up to chapter 26

- Naruto: Ashigaru up to chapter 01, my new creation that I will start posting it at the beginning of October.

You can read all of it at my Patreon account, pat_reon.com/zwolf1 (Without '_') Thank you for your support! :)