Sora found himself falling for the girl depicted in that first chapter, a girl who remained optimistic, proactive, and radiant despite her circumstances.
He loved how she could stand in her old family home with a bright smile on her face, even as she witnessed the painful reality of her absence.
He saw her mother, who still set a place for her at the table every single day as if she had never left.
He saw her younger brother, who grumbled coldly that seeing Mom serve a dead sister's dinner was annoying. He saw her father, who watched it all in stony silence without saying a word.
When Menma uttered that heartbreaking line, "Even I know that I'm already dead" she said it while looking at the family who couldn't see her, wearing a gentle, tender smile. Even when the boy she loved called her a "weirdo" to her face, her first instinct was to worry about his feelings and offer him a smile.
What exactly was her goal? What was this wish she spoke of? Sora was burning with curiosity. He wanted to keep reading. He wanted to see her story through to the end.
"As expected of Shiori Takahashi," Sora sighed. Her character writing was fundamentally different from almost every other author in the industry. He wasn't sure if the pacing would pick up later, but after one chapter, he realized something important.
If the protagonist, Jintan, stayed this frustrating for the rest of the book, the only way to enjoy the story was to avoid empathizing with him entirely. Trying to see the world through Jintan's eyes would be far too depressing.
Instead, Sora decided to view the story from a detached perspective, focusing solely on Menma, the "lost girl" who had become the emotional center of the work.
However, he was self-aware enough to know that not every reader would share the patience of a veteran fan like himself. He opened the official Crimson Maple Literature website to see how the rest of the community was reacting.
The Crimson Maple series forum was as lively as ever.
"Man, has everyone read Star Sea yet? It's absolutely incredible!"
"Is that really from a newcomer?"
"It's only the first chapter, guys. Let's not overhype it. Plenty of stories start strong and then crash and burn."
"I don't care, I think it's great. The world-building in chapter one is solid, and the heroine is so cool. She's definitely not a soft-hearted pushover. When her best friend got trapped, she realized there was no way to save her and immediately sacrificed her to secure the best outcome for the rest of the team. That was cold-blooded and awesome."
"Agreed. It feels like a high-quality read."
"The author's name is Airi, right? That sounds familiar. Oh, wait! Wasn't there a book called Yesterday's Starlight released a while back?"
"Yeah, that was her debut work!"
"Really? She's improved that much? I read the tankōbon for Yesterday's Starlight, and while it was good, it definitely felt like it had some rough edges. This new one is on a whole different level."
"Hey, is anyone actually going to talk about Shiori Takahashi's Anohana?"
"I read Anohana too. I thought it was pretty interesting. The premise is a hook, and Menma is adorable."
"And? That's it?"
"Well, what else is there to say? It's a bit slow. The author spent about sixty percent of the first chapter just explaining the character relationships and the setting. It made the plot feel a little dry."
"I think both new series are fine, but Star Sea definitely had a more exciting first chapter than Anohana."
"I heard they're both high schoolers from the same school in Minamijo. In the past, Shiori Takahashi's Blue Spring Ride always stayed ahead of Airi's. Maybe this is her time for some revenge."
The general consensus seemed to be that while Anohana was slow, it still had plenty of charm and solid character writing. While the first chapter hadn't received rave reviews, there was almost no negative feedback either.
It was the kind of reading experience that was perfectly fine to continue, but you wouldn't necessarily feel a crushing void if you stopped.
Sora scrolled through a few more pages of the forum and shook his head. He took out his phone, scanned the QR code on the back of the magazine, and entered the official voting page.
He didn't cast his vote for the novel itself, but for Menma, the girl who had managed to touch his heart.
He was a patient reader who enjoyed slow-burn stories. Based purely on the character of Menma, he was officially a fan. But as he feared, not everyone was as patient. Most Crimson Maple readers didn't care for long-term setups; they wanted an immediate mental impact the moment they opened the page.
Monday morning arrived at the Crimson Maple Literature editorial department. The staff gathered around to review the data for the latest issue.
They used the same standardized reader survey metrics used by all major publishing houses.
Winter Lake. Votes: 25,169 (Rank 1). Rating: 9.0 (Rank 1).
She's a Bit Strange. Votes: 16,339 (Rank 2). Rating: 9.0 (Rank 2).
Summer Days. Votes: 10,963 (Rank 3). Rating: 8.9 (Rank 3).
Star Sea. Votes: 6,108 (Rank 9). Rating: 8.6 (Rank 7).
…..
Anohana. Votes: 2,316 (Rank 13). Rating: 8.2 (Rank 12).
Black Pupil. Votes: 621 (Rank 14). Rating: 5.9 (Rank 14).
[Because Black Pupil has ranked last in reader votes for five consecutive weeks and has seen dismal market feedback and ratings, the author has been ordered to wrap up the story with an open ending this issue. Its slot will be taken by Azure Flame Tail in the next issue.]
Any novel capable of getting serialized in Crimson Maple was guaranteed a certain level of quality, otherwise it would never have passed the board meetings. Initial reader ratings usually sat above 8.0. However, if a story began to fall apart later on, the score could drop lower than anyone imagined.
While Winter Lake and She's a Bit Strange both showed a 9.0 rating, the internal system actually tracked them to three decimal places. One was effectively a 9.078 while the other was a 9.011, which explained why they shared a score but held different ranks.
The thirteenth-place debut for Anohana was exactly what the editorial staff had expected.
A new series has no established fan base, so it was impossible to compete with long-running hits that had months or years to build a following. Aside from the dying Black Pupil at the bottom, the editors had predicted Anohana and Star Sea would take the tail end of the rankings. They had pegged Anohana for thirteenth with maybe a thousand or two votes. However, Star Sea had shattered their expectations.
Ranking ninth overall with over six thousand votes and a reader rating that put it at seventh place was an incredible achievement for a first chapter.
"Star Sea is the real deal. If it's doing this well after just one chapter, the popularity is going to explode once it gets some momentum," one editor remarked.
"As long as it keeps this up and builds a fan base, it's a serious contender for the top five," another added.
"It's almost scary. How is this Airi so strong? Are all the rookies in the region this year monsters?"
"On the flip side, Anohana didn't really surprise anyone. That's just the nature of slow-burn works. Readers gave it a couple thousand votes out of curiosity and a bit of fresh interest."
"If the upcoming chapters don't pick up the pace, the rating and the vote count will slowly bleed out. We could be looking at a 7.0 rating and barely a thousand votes by chapter eight."
"It's not that slow-burn stories don't exist, but they usually follow a different release model. Famous authors will drop several volumes at once so fans can binge the whole thing. Readers can handle a slow start if they have the rest of the book in their hands. But for a weekly serial? Being slow is almost fatal. The publisher's decision to keep or cut a series is based on the last few weeks of data. If you're at the bottom for five or six weeks straight, the company isn't a charity. They're paying out hundreds of thousands in royalties every month. If a story isn't creating value, they'll axe it in a heartbeat."
"We'll just have to see how Shiori Takahashi handles the pressure. Even a genius has to follow the rules of the market. Anohana isn't a bad book. You can see the craft and the structural skill in every line, but serializing a slow-burn story like this shows a total lack of respect for how the market actually works."
After discussing the performance of the fourteen titles, the editors returned to their desks.
Yukino stared at the report for several minutes, her eyes lingering on Anohana's thirteenth-place finish. She wasn't discouraged, though. It was only the first chapter. According to the unwritten rules of the house, a story would usually get at least seven chapters before being forced into an open ending wrap-up. In the industry, they called it the axe. She wouldn't start getting truly nervous until the series had been running for a month without any sign of improvement.
Yukino filed away the reports and waited until lunch to call the two authors. She started with Haruto.
"Your ratings and votes came in at 12th and 13th place respectively," she reported.
"I see. Thanks for letting me know," Haruto replied. He had expected these numbers, so his voice remained calm and even. "I appreciate the update, Yukino."
After hanging up, she called Reina and gave her the results for Star Sea.
"And how did Haruto's work do?" Reina asked.
On the rooftop of the school building, a light breeze tugged at the hem of Reina's skirt.
She held a copy of Crimson Maple in her hand, the one she had bought yesterday. The pages containing Haruto's Anohana* were covered in pencil marks and circled notes. She had already read the first chapter several times in a single day.
Despite the difference in their rankings, she felt a profound sense of unease. She could see it clearly: in her own first chapter of Star Sea, she hadn't managed to create a single character that could even come close to the emotional weight of Haruto's heroine, Menma.
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