"Oh, Rei."
Miyu closed the rooftop door and waved at Rei with a smile.
The rooftop of the Instructional Building was windy at noon. The overcast sky threatened rain, and the gale whipped Miyu's waist-length black hair into a frenzy.
Her expression was cheerful, but a hint of complexity lingered in her eyes.
"Congratulations on 5 Centimeters Per Second reaching the top spot in Sakura Weekly."
If 5 Centimeters Per Second had merely topped the rankings, Miyu might have felt a pang of disappointment, but not this heavy sense of unease.
But 5 Centimeters Per Second had dominated with a staggering seven thousand-vote lead, an overwhelming display of power.
Whether it was High Score Romance or Tale of Sorrow, it was clear that after the fifth serialized chapter, 5 Centimeters Per Second had completely outclassed them.
She wasn't envious or jealous; what gnawed at her now was a growing sense of doubt.
Miyu had always considered herself a manga prodigy, her ambition to follow in her mother's footsteps and become one of Japan's top manga artists.
But if even a small middle school could harbor a manga artist as talented as Rei, what about the rest of Japan? Even if there were only ten or twenty other prodigies like Rei, could she truly compete against them?
An ordinary person wouldn't react to a genius.
But a genius, upon encountering an even greater genius, often feels lost and bewildered.
Miyu, just past her sixteenth birthday, wasn't competing with Rei; she was competing with Makoto Shinkai from another world. Losing was the norm.
Rei likely understood what she was thinking—she was simply feeling discouraged. He smiled gently.
"You're incredibly talented too. In fact, if the Editorial Department hadn't given High Score Romance a special promotional campaign for its finale, it wouldn't have surpassed Tale of Sorrow in the rankings these past two weeks."
"Of course I know that," Miyu said with a wry smile.
But even if the Editorial Department had given those promotional resources to Tale of Sorrow, I still wouldn't have been able to compete with 5 Centimeters Per Second this week.
"You're truly amazing! You've accomplished in just five weeks what took me three years. Rei... I wonder how many people as talented as you exist in the Japanese manga industry?" Miyu sighed.
There won't be another like me, Rei thought, feeling a pang of sympathy.
He brought works from another world to this one purely out of passion, not to show off his genius and crush others' confidence.
"In the Japanese manga industry, there's only one person as skilled as me," Rei said, seemingly joking.
"Losing to me isn't shameful. In the next few years, every manga artist in Japan you can see right now will lose to me, just like you."
Miyu paused, stunned. After a long moment, she recovered and laughed.
"You mean you aim to become the top manga artist of this era?"
"Exactly."
Miyu studied Rei intently, repeatedly checking if he was serious.
"Do you truly believe you can achieve that?"
"I do," Rei replied with a faint smile.
After a moment of silence, Miyu looked up, the confusion in her eyes having largely dissipated.
Some things she hadn't understood, but now she didn't need to dwell on them anymore.
Rei's goal was to become the number one in Japan, while she was doubting herself and agonizing over a single loss. How pathetic.
Miyu took a deep breath.
She didn't dwell on the topic with false modesty, nor did she stubbornly declare, "I'll win next time!" or make empty promises about not losing again.
I just lost this time. I'll win next time.
The fighting spirit rising in her eyes reassured Rei that her mental state had recovered.
"Ah, speaking of which," Miyu said softly as she walked to the rooftop railing and gazed at the distant dark clouds, "with 5 Centimeters Per Second's quality, I wonder how well the collected volumes will sell?"
Rei looked at her fair profile and asked curiously, "How many copies has Tale of Sorrow sold?"
"Seven volumes serialized so far, averaging 400,000 copies per volume," Miyu replied immediately.
400,000...
Rei's eyes narrowed.
In his previous life on Sakurajima, manga artists with million-copy average sales per volume were considered top-tier. Those with hundreds of thousands of copies were highly popular.
But in Japan, 400,000 copies per volume only qualified an artist as third-rate.
Yet even for a third-rate artist, these sales figures meant...
"So, you're practically a millionaire just from drawing manga?" Rei said enviously.
As a former struggling manga artist, Rei couldn't help but feel envious seeing others make so much money from their manga.
It was like a farmer not necessarily envying a millionaire, but definitely envying their neighbor whose field yielded ten thousand kilograms of rice per hectare.
If that actually happened, it would be infuriating!
With total sales of 2.8 million volumes at the standard price of thirteen Yen per book, Rei's share of the royalties, combined with his manuscript fees, came to nearly two million Yen after taxes.
"Even if you didn't draw manga, you'd still be well-off!" Miyu laughed at Rei's expression.
"My mother was a famous manga artist. Her manga volumes sold tens of millions of copies, and her works were adapted into TV dramas, anime, movies, novels, and games. She was also a skilled investor who left a substantial inheritance to me and my sister. Where do you think we got the money for our big house? Why else would my sister stick to her low-paying job as a manga editor for so many years? Her salary barely covers her cosmetics and anime merchandise, let alone her spy costumes."
Rei's expression froze.
Damn capitalists.
Damn rich people.
Now he truly felt envy, jealousy, and resentment!
Seeing Rei's reaction, Miyu burst into laughter.
"Your face doesn't match your earlier grand declaration of becoming Japan's top manga artist at all! If you really become the number one manga artist in Japan, you'll be ten or even a hundred times richer than my mother!"
"Just you wait. I will," Rei said after a moment of silence.
On the rooftop battered by strong winds, Rei's voice mingled with Miyu's laughter before being carried away by the gale.
The final week of Rei's first year of high school came to an end.
Just two days after the final exams, the class results were posted.
Drawing on his academic foundation as a science student from a top university in his previous life, combined with two months of focused study in this new world, Rei achieved remarkable results.
Having survived the cutthroat competition of the national college entrance exams in his previous life, Rei found Japan's high school system far less demanding.
With this advantage, Rei unsurprisingly swept the class, securing the top overall score and ranking within the top thirty students in the entire grade.
Rei's results made his homeroom teacher's eyes widen in disbelief.
The class group chat erupted into chaos the moment the grades were announced.
What's going on here?
Isn't this kind of sudden academic turnaround usually something that happens during the awakening period in the final year of high school?
High school teachers had seen it all. Academic comebacks weren't exactly rare.
Some students crammed desperately in their final year, studying haphazardly.
Others abandoned their computers and games in their last year, showing everyone what it meant to say, "If I get serious, you can't beat me at games, and the same goes for studying."
But Rei was only a first-year student. Was it normal for him to start this early?
Having already begun his summer vacation, Rei had no chance to face the curious gazes of his homeroom teacher, other teachers, and classmates.
During the summer, Rei threw himself into drawing his new manga and preparing for the publication of the 5 Centimeters Per Second manga volume.