Tokyo Soft Rice King.

"So you were just trying to comfort me."

"It's both comfort and guidance."

"I won't suddenly do anything rash, and I won't harm your sister's body."

“I’m not worried about that… I just want to say that your presence probably has its purpose.”

"Meaning? Ha... I'm nothing but a ghost from the old era. My appearance in the modern world is a mistake, and I shamelessly took over your sister's body. Don't you think so?"

"My thoughts are not important; what matters is how Xiaoguang perceives your existence."

"She's the only one truly qualified to judge me..."

She seemed to have calmed down a lot. She closed her eyes, then opened them again and made a suggestion to Kuroba Akira.

"Okay, let's go to the next stop then."

Where would you like to go next?

“I think we can follow our hearts a little more… By the way, I’m quite interested in the illustrated book you wrote.”

"Uh……"

Why did I have to become interested in light novels?!

And she actually knew it was her own work, "Sister's Journey," that she couldn't successfully separate the parts!

How exactly was it exposed? It shouldn't have been mentioned to her face, right?

The answer is that mind reading is one of the basic superpowers of gods, and Kuroba Akira actually knows what she is thinking.

"I'd like to see that book. Could you take me somewhere where I can buy it?"

Since she's said that... then the next stop is Akihabara.

They didn't bother browsing the figurine shops or claw machine stores; they went straight to the bookstore.

At this time, the second volume of "Imouto ga Nozomi" had also been released, and placed alongside the reprint of the first volume, it once again dominated the top spot in the novel recommendation section.

He brought along someone who outwardly resembled his younger sister, but inwardly wasn't—someone who was like a younger sister—to the bookstore to buy his own light novel, a story about a sister complex...

This is absolutely inexplicable.

So after Kuroba Akira bought the novel for her, he ran off to read the latest issue of Akamaru BOOM.

Akamaru BOOM, a supplementary issue of Shonen BOOM, is published three times a year, usually at the beginning of the year, Golden Week, and Obon, which are Japan's three major long holidays. It is also intended to fill the gaps in the weekly Shonen BOOM's publication during holidays.

Some comics that are jokingly called "the one that only updates every quarter" or even every year are usually serialized in these supplementary issues.

In the era before e-reading became widespread, the number of comics serialized in magazines was fixed, making the competition extremely fierce. To expand the number of serializations, the only options were to publish supplements and create smaller, monthly-sized issues, such as SQ.

Of course, besides Akamaru, there are also some irregular supplements, which are generally for publishing award-winning short stories and promising new serializations.

Akira Kuroba wanted to see which short story would win the award, since judging from the review time, the manga produced by the Literature and Art Department wouldn't be able to make it into this issue.

When he flipped to the short story award-winning manga, Akira Kuroba was completely dumbfounded.

The winning entry is... "Soul Battery"!

Wow, I actually won an award! And it's the grand prize! Six million yen in prize money!

No, wait! I mean, why so fast!

Even if they won an award, it should have been put in the next round! Why was it moved up so much?!

This takes us back to the day before the new year, when Kuroba Akira was drugged and subjected to a tax inspection.

Nihei Yoshihisa, the deputy editor-in-chief of Shonen BOOM, returned to the editorial department with a treasured manga he had found in CM.

I started my break in January, but I still had to work before the New Year. Basically, I just finalized the layout of Akamaru BOOM and sent it to the printing factory. The content had already been decided long ago.

"Hey, Mr. Niping, did you go treasure hunting at CM again this year? Did you find any good works?"

The person who greeted him was editor Saito Tetsu. This was actually a joke, because every year, Yoshihisa Nihei would go to CM in his private capacity to search for general-interest manga, but the probability of finding a gem was extremely low. He had been doing this for ten years and hadn't seen any truly promising works.

But this time was different; this time he brought back a comic that made his editorial blood boil.

"This time it's for real! A super exciting manga for shonen fans!"

"Action + fan service? It's really hard to imagine how these two elements could be combined."

Saito Tetsuya seemed rather uninterested. It wasn't that he didn't trust the deputy editor-in-chief Nihei's judgment, but rather that the fact that a doujinshi manga chose to release its work at a doujinshi convention instead of submitting it to the editorial department must indicate that there were some problems with the work itself or the author.

So he couldn't quite understand why a professional like Deputy Editor-in-Chief Erping would go to those amateur hobbyist gathering places twice a year to shop online; it was simply a waste of time.

Saito Tetsuya wasn't interested in the work that Deputy Editor-in-Chief Nihei had brought back, so he spoke first.

"By the way, the editorial department received a particularly wonderful piece of work from a newcomer today!"

"A short story?"

"Yes! Everyone was thrilled after watching it! It's been so long since we've seen such a classic, high-energy sports film!"

"Oh wow? Such high praise? I'll have to take a look."

"Mr. Niping, you'll understand when you see it."

"Okay, let's switch. Ah Zhe, you should watch this one too. I guarantee you'll get your blood pumping."

So the two exchanged comics and started reading them on the spot.

A few minutes later, the two looked up together, both seeing an expression of utter shock in each other's eyes.

"Mr. Erping, I'm saying..." "Ah Zhe, you..."

The two of them spoke at the same time and shouted the same words.

"These two comics must be written by the same person!"

Then the two were surprised to find that they had reached the same conclusion.

"You noticed it too, Zhe? That's great."

“Mr. Niping, I’ve been in this industry for eight years now. If I can’t even spot this, I might as well resign and go back to my hometown.”

"If it were a newcomer, they probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. A common mistake newcomers make is to identify the artist by their art style. It's true that the authors who serialize in our magazine have developed their own unique art styles, but while art styles can be imitated, the feel of the brushstrokes and panel layouts is very difficult to imitate."

"Yes, although the stories and art styles of these two comics are completely different, their core is very similar... The panel layouts should be the work of the same person."

"Actually, there's no need to solve the mystery here. Just look at the author's name on both works."

"what!"

It was only then that Saito Tetsu noticed that part of the signatures on both sides were the same.

"Although the artists are different, the original title is the same! They're both called Shirako... Does he like to eat shirako (white peas)? Come to think of it, Shirako... I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before..."

"Hehe, Ah Zhe, you probably don't read light novels, right? This is a newly debuted light novel author, and his debut work sold 100,000 copies in its first week."

"Oh! That's it! I know! I saw it as soon as I entered the bookstore, and the cover of the novel was really well drawn, no worse than the cover of our weekly serialization, so I remembered it and thought I would buy it to read when I was less busy... So is it a story written by this author?"

"That's right, then take another look back at the art style of that light novel's cover."

"Hmm...hmm...? Huh?!"

As he recalled the events, Saito Tetsuya's eyes widened as he realized something terrifying.

"Wait a minute, so Mr. Nihei, you mean that the author and illustrator duo who just debuted and wrote a hit light novel suddenly came out and challenged themselves with manga, and even drew two works with completely different story contents, and then submitted them to us while also selling them in the winter commercial?"

"Professional editors must be bold in making judgments. Although it may sound exaggerated, it is the truth."

"This...this isn't an exaggeration, is it!"

Is this even human?! He's practically made of livers! He'd be perfect as a weekly comic artist!

How could young Boom miss out on such a pair of unparalleled talents...

We absolutely must get them to start their own serialization here!

Chapter 410 Overthrowing one's superior is a traditional skill

"What a pity...!"

Saito Tetsuya carefully put the doujinshi away; it was the first time he had ever taken a doujinshi so seriously.

The main reason was that this wet and slippery girl was just too much to his liking; it made him want to get aroused.

What's most commendable is that, even disregarding the fan service, this is still a very interesting and exciting manga.

"With this level of skill, why not submit it to an editorial department?"

Saito Tetsuya thinks this way because this is an original manga with completely original characters and a fictional setting, without any copyright infringement elements.

"It's probably because of the level of exposure; after all, it was still revealing."

As is well known, female characters in shonen manga are usually very smooth and lack sexual characteristics, mainly to cater to the elementary school readership.

"But actually, this level of leniency could be approved by turning a blind eye... Of course, it would have to be erased."

“Then we’ll lose the biggest ‘highlight.’ Ah Zhe, you can try covering it up and see how much difference there is in the visual tension between having it there and not having it.”

Following Nihei Yoshihisa's advice, Saito Tetsuya tried covering that part with his finger and then looking at it again, and immediately discovered the problem.

"Ah...it's that panel that was wiped away! I see! It's precisely because there's a apex that it looks more 'extreme,' even painfully rubbed! But when it becomes a surface, it doesn't have that feeling!"

Saito Tetsuya crossed his arms over his chest, the impact of the scene seemingly resonating with him.

"That's right. It's precisely because the theme is a manga about a flat-chested man versus a man with huge breasts, emphasizing the confrontation at the very top, that the viewing experience would drop a level if it weren't included... It's probably because we didn't want this crucial element to be censored by the editorial department that we chose to release it at a doujinshi convention."

"They're actually willing to give up the opportunity to serialize the work for the sake of the story itself! That's incredible!"

"Yes, someone who can do this must truly love comics, which is why I brought this work back..."

Actually, there was another reason: this work also made Yoshihisa Nihei realize the missing parts of his own manga magazine.

If we say that shonen manga is R12 and seinen manga is R18, then what's missing is the middle part, R15, which is more explicit than shonen manga, but doesn't explicitly and blatantly depict sex.

"Slippery Girl" is a work that falls into this age group. It's a bit too explicit for a shonen manga, but seinen manga probably wouldn't want a work with such a simple theme.

Perhaps we could try to propose a new project and create a new publication to fill this gap, so that excellent works like Slippery Girl can also appear in the public eye.

However, these were all his previous thoughts. He really didn't expect that after returning to the editorial department, another surprise awaited him.

Nihei Yoshihisa also organized the original manuscript of the Soul Capture manga and put it into a file bag.

"But what I didn't expect was that they had made two preparations... a classic shonen sports manga with absolutely no fan service elements. It's amazing that they can handle two different genres."

It's like asking a driver to operate a boat; although both involve driving vehicles, they are completely different fields.