Over the next few days, Reina became a permanent fixture at Haruto's home. She arrived every afternoon like clockwork, carrying her portable electronic keyboard and a thick stack of sheet music.
The song Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~ began to take shape, note by painstaking note. Through their combined efforts, the full score was finally completed just before mid-October.
Throughout this collaborative process, Haruto had actually picked up a fair amount of basic music theory under Reina's strict tutelage. He learned the layout of the piano, the distinction between the fifty-two white keys and thirty-six black keys, and the subtle nuances of pitch and tone. His primary motivation for learning was to speed up the creative process, sparing Reina the tedious task of playing every single variation of a melody just to see if it matched what was in his head.
Haruto logged onto the official Copyright Registration Portal. Following the site's prompts and completing the remote identity verification via video call, he uploaded his personal information and paid the registration fee through his bank app. With a final click, a new piece of musical history was officially born into this world.
Title: Secret Base
Composers: Shiori Takahashi, Airi
While the legal copyright belonged entirely to Haruto, the composer credits honored their partnership.
"I truly hope this song gets selected. If it blows up alongside the anime, every hour we spend here will have been worth it," Reina said. She finally let her fingers drift away from the keys, though this was already the seventh time she had played the full arrangement that evening. She seemed unable to get enough of it, her performance growing more spirited and emotive with every repetition.
"I hope so too," Haruto replied, watching her with a warm, genuine smile.
'She really is a kind, helpful person,' he thought to himself. He couldn't help but wonder about the malicious rumors that circulated at school, the ones claiming she was an arrogant, cold-hearted ice queen who looked down on everyone else. Clearly, the people spreading those lies had never spent a single afternoon in her company.
In mid-October, Haruto sent the completed score for Secret Base to the production team at KyoAni Studios for their professional review. Following that, the focus of the entire light novel industry shifted to the selection of the three regional "seeds" for the Minamijo "Ascent of New Gods" competition.
The term "selection" was something of a formality. The Minamijo Light Novel Association handled the voting, but since the association was mostly comprised of executive staff from the five major regional publishers, the meeting was over almost as soon as it had begun. Once Crimson Maple Literature laid out the historical rankings and sales data for both Shiori Takahashi and Airi, the other seventeen candidates realized with sinking hearts that they were only fighting for the third and final remaining spot.
With one author holding a first-place finish in Crimson Maple and the other holding a steady second, there was simply no room for debate. These weren't just rookies; they were anomalies that the industry hadn't seen in decades.
When the official announcement was finally made, the roster for the Minamijo regional seeds was set: Airi and Shiori Takahashi from Crimson Maple Literature, and Nanzawa from Blue Sky Publishing. The news sent both Haruto's and Reina's fanbases into a state of absolute fever pitch.
"So we actually get to see Shiori Takahashi-sensei's new work in less than two months? This is the best news of the year!"
"I haven't stopped crying over Anohana. Shiori Takahashi-sensei, you have to take the number one spot in the national competition! Show those Tokyo publishers what Minamijo is made of!"
"First place might be a bit of a stretch," one more cynical fan noted on a forum. "Minamijo's best record in history is only twenty-eighth place. Shiori Takahashi is different, I'll admit, but we have to be realistic here. I think she can crack the top ten, and even that would be a miracle."
The rivalry between Shiori Takahashi and Airi was becoming the stuff of legend.
Fans felt a deep sense of sympathy for Airi, who had debuted at second place behind Shiori Takahashi in the sub-magazine, only to repeat the exact same pattern in the flagship Crimson Maple magazine.
Interestingly, rumors began to circulate that the third seed, Nanzawa, was also an alumnus of Minamijo Third High School.
"Wait, Minamijo Third High? How is one single school producing this many monsters? Is there something in the water there or what?"
While the hype around Shiori Takahashi and Airi reached a crescendo, poor Nanzawa was left largely in the shadows.
Even though he was only nineteen years old and had achieved a respectable ninth-place ranking in the prestigious Blue Sky magazine, he was treated like a complete afterthought by the public. It stung even more because he really was their senior. He had skipped university at seventeen to dive headfirst into the industry, and after two years of grinding, he had finally found success, only to be completely overshadowed by two "junior girls" from his old school.
Locked in his room, he muttered to himself about how the tides of fortune would eventually turn. He vowed to show everyone who the real genius was during the "Ascent of New Gods" finals.
By late October, the Anohana tankōbon finally hit the shelves. It was undeniably the phenomenon of the year in Minamijo. Based on the thirty-nine thousand votes for the finale, other publishers were terrified. They had collectively cleared their release schedules, ensuring no other local titles launched in the same window as a sign of respect, or perhaps just pure survival instinct.
Crimson Maple Literature had marketed the volumes heavily, emphasizing that the side stories were strictly exclusive to the physical release. This ensured that even the magazine readers, who usually didn't buy physical volumes, were lining up at bookstores at the crack of dawn.
The sales were astronomical. While the publisher lacked the resources for a massive national television campaign, Anohana had a secret weapon. Fans of Haruto's previous work, Blue Spring Ride, had been spreading the word in other prefectures for months. They had acted as a massive grassroots marketing team, helping the story cultivate a dedicated following outside of Minamijo long before the books even arrived.
Then came the final spark that set the market ablaze.
KyoAni Studios officially announced on their website that the Anohana anime adaptation would premiere in early January on Tokyo TV-7.
While the publisher didn't have the "big capital" for a national marketing blitz, an anime adaptation was the ultimate promotional tool.
It was often more effective than any amount of paid advertising. Though the broadcast was still two months away, the news itself acted as a massive validation for the series' quality.
For now, the story of the Super Peace Busters was a local legend. But with the tankōbon flying off the shelves and a high-profile anime on the horizon, the name "Shiori Takahashi" was about to resonate across Japan.
_______________________
Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 50 Advanced Chapters