Tokyo: The Manga Begins with the Funeral of Frilian

"No problem."

Shiori Shirakawa's tense nerves finally relaxed. Before actually making the cut, she would first draw on the paper twice and confirm it repeatedly before daring to make the cut.

Kamitani Yuma observed for a moment and realized that her problem was not with controlling the force.

In fact, the real problem is that she is overly cautious.

Being overly cautious can easily lead to hesitation.

When a person starts to hesitate, their hand will unconsciously tremble, and the resulting lines will have rough edges.

"Don't treat it as the original manuscript."

Kamiya Yuma spoke up to remind her.

"Then what should I consider it as?"

Shiori Shirakawa asked in confusion.

"You can think of it as the miso soup you're making. When chopping the green onions, chop them finely, but not into a paste; cut the tofu into small cubes, but not into pieces. Just use the same force you would when making miso soup."

Shiori Shirakawa was taken aback for a moment, then her movements became much smoother.

She is very skilled at chopping scallions, having done it for over twenty years. She can chop them evenly evenly even with her eyes closed.

She imagined the halftone paper as scallions, the blade in her hand as a kitchen knife, and the halftone dots that needed to be scraped off as unwanted scallion leaves.

With that thought, her hands stopped trembling immediately.

Yuma Kamiya sat down next to her.

Picking up another utility knife, the two of them stood side by side scraping the dots.

All that could be heard was the rustling sound of the knife blade on the paper, a sound completely different from the sound of brushstrokes when drawing.

After scraping the gradient of a petal, Shiori Shirakawa held the painting a little further away to look at it, and then said, "I think I'm slowly starting to get the hang of it."

"That's true."

Yuma Kamiya responded.

"Then why don't you hire an assistant? Don't authors who do weekly serializations usually have assistants to help them?"

Shiori Shirakawa asked with a curious expression.

  

"My senior, Onodera, mentioned twice that I should find an assistant, but I said I would wait a little longer."

"That's what Yuma Kamiya replied."

"What are you waiting for?"

Shiori Shirakawa continued to press for answers.

Kamiya Yuma flipped the halftone paper in his hand over and carefully checked whether the scratches on the back were even.

"I don't really want strangers in this house."

Shiori Shirakawa paused for a moment, then asked, "So, am I a stranger?"

"You're already living here, so what do you think?"

Kamiya Yuma countered with a question.

She lowered her head, and the tips of her ears peeked out from her hair, slightly red.

The two continued to silently scrape the netting.

At three in the morning, the streets of Banqiao were so quiet that only the sound of a knife blade slicing through paper could be heard.

Shiori Shirakawa rubbed her slightly sore eyes.

Kamiya Yuma went to pour two glasses of water, and when he returned, he found that Shirakawa Shiori had already fallen asleep on the drawing table.

She was still clutching the utility knife tightly in her hand.

He gently pulled the utility knife from her hand; the handle still retained her body heat.

Then he took a coat from the closet and gently draped it over her shoulders.

She stirred, but did not wake up.

The sky outside the window began to gradually turn white.

Yuma Kamiya picked up the utility knife again.

At that moment, he noticed a brand new dot-matrix knife on the table.

The angle of this dotted blade feels more comfortable to use than his previous one.

There was also an extra set of pen nibs next to it.

The pen nib comes in three different thicknesses than he usually uses.

Yuma Kamiya scraped the last spot.

It was already broad daylight outside the window.

He stretched his stiff neck and held up the two double-page spread of illustrations to examine them carefully in the morning light.

The flowers in the painting gradually transition from dark gray to light white, and the sunlight after the rain filters through the gaps in the clouds.

Sunlight shines on the petals, making each flower appear exceptionally vibrant with a moist sheen.

Shiori Shirakawa woke up and sat up straight.

The coat draped over her shoulders slipped off.

She glanced at the two double-page spreads already completed on the drawing table.

"breakfast......"

"You don't need to make breakfast today, I'll go to the convenience store and buy rice balls."

"But the schedule says that I, Shirakawa Shiori, am in charge of getting first place in the breakfast race."

"The schedule also states that I must stop working before 10 o'clock."

Shiori Shirakawa stood up and folded her coat, placing it on the back of the chair.

"Last night was actually the deadline, and the situation was indeed quite special."

"It's precisely because the deadline is approaching that I feel it's even more my responsibility to buy the rice balls."

They looked at each other.

I saw that subtle, unspoken understanding.

"The rice balls you buy at the convenience store don't come with miso soup."

"It's okay to eat rice balls without miso soup only once in a while."

Shiori Shirakawa did not raise any further objections to what he said.

She went to the restroom to wash her face, and when she came out of the restroom...

Yuma Kamiya had already put on his shoes in the entryway, and it seemed he was about to go out.

"Would you like a tuna rice ball or a mentaiko rice ball?"

"Mentaiko flavored,"

Yuma Kamiya walked down the stairs.

I walked towards the convenience store.

In the early morning, the streets of Banqiao still retained the dampness of the previous night.

Inside the convenience store, a clerk was restocking the shelves with the latest issue of Jump magazine.

He reached out and picked up a magazine, flipping through it.

I saw that "The Burial of Frilian" was ranked fifth on the list.

This represents a three-place improvement in rankings compared to the first week.

He closed the magazine and put it back on the shelf.

When he returned to the apartment.

Shiori Shirakawa had already tidied up the drawing table perfectly.

"Here you go, this is the rice ball you ordered, and this is miso soup, but it's instant."

"Didn't you say before that it was in the convenience store...?"

"Instant miso soup is better than no miso soup at all, right?"

Shiori Shirakawa poured the instant miso soup into a cup and then poured hot water over it.

The two of them sat together at the low table.

Holding a rice ball in my hand, I ate it with instant miso soup.

The view outside the window is of Banqiao Street in the morning.

"Next time the deadline comes, there's no need to work through the night to finish. You can think about finding an assistant more carefully."

"Aren't you already considered my assistant?"

Shiori Shirakawa pushed half a mentaiko rice ball in front of him.

"I have to go to work during the day, so I can only help you post the store locations occasionally at night."

Kamiya Yuma picked up the half rice ball.

"That's enough for me. I can draw the backgrounds and halftone dots during the day, and I can draw the characters and storyboards at night. These two double-page spreads are a special case. I won't have such a large amount of backgrounds in the future."