I, Hiroshi Nohara, the star of Japanese cinema!

"It's already... everything has been arranged. The station's publicity resources have been given to the best possible extent. All the warm-up will be completed before next Monday." Masao Iwata answered cautiously.

"Not enough." Takada Shunying shook his head: "Only the publicity from the station is not enough."

He took out a business card from the drawer and placed it gently on the table.

"Kato Nobuyuki is the chief film critic for the Nitto Shimbun. I arranged for someone to communicate with him last night, and he will publish a substantial review before your animation airs. The 'writing fee' I gave him will be enough for him to praise your film, Onibo Samurai, to perfection."

Masao Iwata's eyes suddenly lit up.

Kato Shin!

He is a recognized writer in the industry, and his articles have always been a barometer of box office and ratings!

"Thank you, Deputy Director! Thank you, Deputy Director!" He bowed repeatedly with excitement.

"Don't be too happy too soon." Takada Toshihide's eyes turned cold. He stared at Iwata Masao and said word by word, "I've done everything I can for you. Next Monday, your 'Kimi no Sasuke' must not only win, but win beautifully! I want you to use the highest ratings to tell everyone that so-called miracles are nothing but a joke in the face of absolute strength and resources."

He paused, lowering his voice to a whisper, yet carrying a tremendous weight.

"Also, the station has already made a preliminary decision on the director for that S-ranked live-action horror project in the second half of the year. The focus will be on the ratings for the first half of the year. Do you understand what I mean?"

Iwata Masao's body shook violently.

He raised his head, looked into Takada Toshihide's bottomless eyes, and finally understood.

This is no longer a simple battle for ratings, it is a war that involves his future.

"Hi!" Iwata Masao immediately lowered his head again with a serious expression and responded seriously: "I will do my best!"

Chapter 30 Responsible Editor

Nohara Hiroshi walked out of the steel behemoth of TV Tokyo. The afternoon sun, with a touch of just the right warmth, bathed him in the gentle warmth. He took a deep breath of Tokyo air, mingled with exhaust fumes and dust, and felt a sense of unprecedented freedom and comfort.

Instead of going directly home, he took a detour to Ginza.

In the kaiseki restaurant hidden deep in the alley that he had booked long ago, he met the figure for whom he was willing to fight.

Today, Misae Koyama wore an off-white dress, her long hair tied back with a simple headband, revealing her smooth forehead and delicate collarbone. She wore no makeup, her face, brimming with collagen, seemed brighter than all the neon lights in Ginza combined.

When she saw Nohara Hiroshi push open the elegant wooden door, her big watery eyes instantly curved into two beautiful crescents.

"Hiroshi-kun!"

She pounced towards him like a joyful little bird, but stopped at the last step. She just looked at him with her bright eyes without blinking, as if she could never see enough.

"Have you been waiting long?" Nohara Hiroshi stretched out his hand and naturally scratched the tip of her upturned nose. The touch was as warm as jade.

"Not long ago!" Mei Ya shook her head, unable to suppress the grin on her lips. "I just got here, seriously!"

Nohara Hiroshi just smiled, took her hand, and walked into the elegant room prepared just for the two of them.

He had booked this restaurant with his first truly substantial royalty from Yu Yu Hakusho. It wasn't cheap, but seeing Misae's adorable expression, trying to maintain her composure while simultaneously staring wide-eyed as each dish, each like a work of art, was served to him, he felt it was all worth it.

"Wow... Is this Omasan's premium Daiboku? It melts in your mouth... So delicious!"

"Guozhi-kun, please try this matsutake clear soup, it's so delicious!"

"Is this...is this a live Ise lobster? Its...its tentacles are still moving!"

Mei Ya was like a country girl who had just entered the heavenly palace for the first time. Every dish would cause her to exclaim in surprise. The joy that came from her heart could increase her appetite better than any seasoning.

Nohara Hiroshi just looked at her with a smile, occasionally picking up a piece of tempura for her, or picking out the mushrooms that she didn't like from the cooking.

"Hiroshi-kun." Misae ate the piece of taro with the mushrooms picked out by Nohara Hiroshi in small bites, and suddenly raised her head. There was a hint of admiration and curiosity in her eyes, which were made more moist by the steam from the food.

"Hmm?" Nohara Hiroshi looked at her.

"I was on the train today and heard a lot of people talking about Anzhiju! You're really... amazing!

When she finished speaking, there was a barely perceptible tremor in her voice, which was a sense of pride.

"It's not so bad." Nohara Hiroshi smiled softly, as if the 3.24% that had shaken up the entire TV station was just an insignificant number: "It's just the beginning."

Standing on the shoulders of giants who came before us.

Now he is like a fish in water!

"It's not 'alright' at all!" Meisai puffed out her cheeks like a little squirrel guarding its food, and retorted somewhat dissatisfiedly, "I heard the ladies next door talking about it! They said they don't dare go to the company tea room alone at night anymore, for fear that a face will suddenly appear from the copier! They also said that the director of this animation must be a terrifying monster!"

As she spoke, she couldn't help but burst out laughing, her beautiful crescent eyes flashing with a cunning light: "If they knew that the 'devil' was Guangzhi-kun who made me a loving breakfast, I wonder what their expressions would be?"

"Maybe you think I'm a devil in human skin." Nohara Hiroshi picked up the sake, took a sip, and the spicy warmth slid down his throat.

He looked at the girl in front of him with a sweet smile, and the fatigue accumulated in his heart due to days of fighting seemed to be washed away by this smile.

This is the meaning of his fight.

To protect this smile, to make her always carefree like this, to exclaim in surprise at a piece of top-quality tuna, to laugh at a silly joke.

"The Nohara family's beautiful daughter." Nohara Hiroshi chuckled: "Maybe now is the time to have a Shin-chan."

……

After dinner, the two did not take a car, but walked slowly hand in hand on the street where the lights were just coming on.

The night in Tokyo is like a piece of black brocade embellished with countless gems. It is luxurious and cold, yet it inadvertently reveals the warmth of thousands of lights.

It was late at night when they returned to their small apartment in Kasukabe.

But when they arrived at their door, they were stunned.

A lone figure stood against the wall next to the apartment's iron gate. He was wearing a wrinkled suit, his hair a bit disheveled, and clutching a heavy-looking briefcase. He exuded the pitiful aura of a cat, wet by the rain and dried by the wind.

"Mr. Tansho?" Nohara Hiroshi raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He knows this man.

When the man heard the voice, he suddenly raised his head. After seeing that it was Nohara Hiroshi, his face full of anxiety suddenly burst into a light as if he had seen a savior.

"Teacher Nohara! You're finally back!" He practically rushed over, his voice filled with tears. "I called you eight times! You know what? I couldn't wait at Shueisha! A great opportunity for Yu Yu Hakusho in Shonen Jump! I had to come find you in person!"

The visitor was none other than Nohara Hiroshi's editor-in-chief of Shonen Jump, Masato Tadokoro.

"Come in first and talk." Nohara Hiroshi opened the door helplessly.

Meiya looked at the uninvited guest curiously, then considerately went to the kitchen to make tea.

As soon as he entered the room, Masato Tadokoro could no longer hold back. He put his briefcase on the ground and almost knelt down in front of Hiroshi Nohara.

"Teacher Nohara, this is a great opportunity!" He seemed even more humble.

But no way.

Anyone who knows a cartoonist who has no creative bottleneck and can draw a manuscript that takes other cartoonists half a year in just one day will feel so humbled.

In his eyes, Hiroshi Nohara is a genuine genius cartoonist!

"Mr. Tadokoro, please calm down." Nohara Hiroshi pressed him onto the sofa and handed him a cup of barley tea that Misae had just brewed. "I remember I just gave you a month's worth of manuscripts last week. What's wrong?"

"I have enough manuscripts, but...but now the opportunity has arrived!" Masato Tadokoro took a long sip of tea, finally catching his breath, and said in an almost mournful tone: "You know our magazine's mainstay, Mr. Miyamoto, who has been drawing 'Samurai Spirit' for fifteen years? He...he suddenly announced yesterday that he's ending it!"

Nohara Hiroshi was also slightly stunned when he heard this.

He knew that "Samurai Soul" was the evergreen of "Weekly Shonen Jump" in this world, and its status was roughly equivalent to "Kurobuta: Police Station" in the previous life. Although its popularity was no longer at its peak, it was a sentiment of countless readers and a stable cornerstone of magazine sales.

"This... is too sudden." Nohara Hiroshi raised his eyebrows.

"Who says it isn't?" Tadokoro Masato looked hopeless. "Miyamoto-sensei said he was going to travel the world in search of new inspiration! But with him gone, our weekly magazine's mainstay is vacant! The popularity of the last few series has been half-dead. The editor-in-chief's face turned green during the meeting this morning! He ordered that we must find a work that can take the top spot immediately!"

As he spoke, he stared at Nohara Hiroshi with an extremely eager and expectant look.

"So, everyone in the editorial office thought of you! Mr. Nohara! Your Yu Yu Hakusho is now soaring in popularity at an incredible rate! It has been ranked in the top five in reader surveys for three consecutive weeks! And your drawings are fast and of high quality! Only you, only your Yu Yu Hakusho, can fill the gap left by Mr. Miyamoto and become the new pillar of our JUMP! We must seize this opportunity!"

Mei Ya, who was carrying a fruit plate, couldn't help but show a worried look on her face when she heard this.

She walked over to Nohara Hiroshi and sat down, gently tugging at the corner of his clothes, and whispered, "Hiroshi-kun, you've been so busy at the TV station lately... If you work overtime until so late every day and then draw comics, your body won't be able to take it."

Her voice was filled with unconcealable heartache.

However, her words were like a thunderbolt that struck Masato Tadokoro on the head.

"T...TV station?" The eagerness on Masato Tadokoro's face froze instantly. He stared blankly at Hiroshi Nohara, then at Misae, his voice changing tone: "Teacher Nohara...you...you went to work for Tokyo TV?"

He felt that his world collapsed at this moment.

It’s over.

This was the only thought in his mind.

His greatest hope, the talented cartoonist who was regarded as a savior by all his colleagues in the editorial department, the hardworking man who could draw more than ten pages of high-quality drawings in one night, actually... actually went to find a "proper job"?

This was like a bolt from the blue for an editor who relied on cartoonists for his livelihood.

Looking at Masato Tadokoro's dejected expression as if he had fallen from heaven to hell, Hiroshi Nohara just smiled indifferently.

"It's okay." He patted Misae's hand, reassuring her, and then said to Tadokoro Masato, "It's just a part-time job. It won't affect the drawings. Coincidentally, I've got some new ideas lately."

Of course he had an idea.

The entire Dark Martial Arts Tournament arc of Yu Yu Hakusho, the thrilling battles and the vivid and charming characters, had already been played out countless times in his mind.

For others, it is a creation that takes a lot of effort.

For him, it was just... memorization.

Ok.

You can say it's plagiarism. After all, that old thief can still travel back through time and sue him, right?

"Really...really?" A glimmer of hope rekindled in Masato Tadokoro's dim eyes.

"Yes." Nohara Hiroshi nodded, his tone calm but with an unquestionable power: "Before this Sunday, I will give you the manuscript for the next chapter, and the same goes for the ones after that."

"Great! Great!" Masato Tadokoro was so excited that he almost stood up and bowed again. He looked at Hiroshi Nohara as if he was looking at a shining god.

Before leaving, he seemed to remember something and asked curiously, "By the way, Mr. Nohara, may I ask, what project are you involved in at TV Tokyo?"

"A horror animation called 'An Shibaju'." Hiroshi Nohara answered casually.

"Anzhii..." Masato Tadokoro muttered the name, frowning slightly, "I seem to have heard of it somewhere... I think a colleague from another department mentioned it. They said there's a late-night anime that's been very popular recently..."

He didn't think much about it, but just kept the name in mind.

"Then I won't bother you! Mr. Nohara, have a good rest! I'm waiting for your manuscript!"

Masato Tadokoro, holding his briefcase, almost floated away with a heart full of joy and gratitude.