Although the Anohana tankōbon wasn't scheduled for release until late October, the promotional engine at Crimson Maple Literature was already roaring to life by the end of September.
New posters for the series seemed to sprout overnight across the Minamijo region, appearing at anime conventions, high-traffic bookstore displays, and merchandise hubs. The marketing materials leaned heavily on two key selling points.
First, the inclusion of an entirely new side-story chapter in the physical volumes, and second, a limited "Golden Ticket" event. One thousand copies of the tankōbon would contain a bookmark personally signed by the author, Shiori Takahashi. These special editions were identical to the standard versions on the outside and were distributed randomly across the region, turning the purchase into a thrilling lottery for the fans.
This news sent the Anohana fanbase into a fever pitch.
"A hand-signed bookmark from Shiori Takahashi-sensei? I bet a writer who crafts such a gentle story has a signature that smells like flowers," one fan gushed online.
This promotional stunt meant that Haruto's daily routine now included the tedious task of signing a mountain of blank bookmarks. He had a deadline to deliver all one thousand signatures to the publisher by Monday.
"I wonder if the fans will be disappointed when they see my handwriting is just... average?" Haruto muttered to himself, looking at the growing stack of bookmarks bearing the name "Shiori Takahashi." His expression was a mix of amusement and mild concern.
For the time being, Haruto had no intention of holding any public signing events.
His high school, Minamijo Third High, was notoriously strict about attendance. If he took too much time off, he risked failing to meet the required credit hours, which would mean repeating a year or failing to graduate entirely. More importantly, he wasn't ready to drop his mask; he knew the moment he revealed his face, his peaceful student life would be a memory.
With Anohana finished, Haruto had entered a period of relative calm, while he waited for the "Ascent of New Gods" event to kick off in a couple of months.
As for starting a new serialization at Crimson Maple, he had no immediate plans. The workload for the Anohana adaptation was already proving to be a handful. KyoAni Studios, true to Director Ren Hirose's word, was incredibly respectful of his vision. They frequently contacted him to discuss character designs, art styles, narrative pacing, and the adapted script. Working with a professional studio was efficient, but it was also demanding. If he tried to start a new novel now, the exhaustion would likely kill him.
However, the studio had followed up on his previous offer regarding the music for the series.
Ding-dong!
The doorbell echoed through the quiet apartment. Since his father's death and the subsequent fallout with debt-ridden relatives, Haruto rarely had visitors. He knew exactly who was standing on the other side of that door.
When he opened it, he found a young girl standing there with poise. Her long, black hair cascaded down her shoulders like silk. She wore a simple, white floral sundress and carried a massive equipment bag on her back. Her gaze was cool and calm as she looked at him, her features striking in their quiet elegance.
Reina stepped inside and took a slow look around the living room. "I expected your place to be like Yukino's, overflowing with anime figures and light novel merchandise. I didn't expect it to be so... empty," she remarked.
"If you come back in a few months, I'm sure it'll be a different story. My royalties haven't even settled in my pocket yet, and between school and writing, I haven't exactly had time to go shopping for hobbies," Haruto replied. He poured her a cup of tea, and they sat across from each other in the living room, a brief, slightly awkward silence hanging between them.
Reina's true reason for visiting was to help him with the musical score, but she had also been secretly curious to see if he was already working on a new manuscript.
To her slight disappointment, she saw no signs of a new project. Haruto had decided on To the Moon, but he hadn't put pen to paper yet.
"Well, I won't waste any more of your time. Let's get to work," Haruto said, breaking the silence.
He knew he couldn't play an instrument or read music, but he could sing. He knew this would be a difficult task for a musician, but when they had spoken on the phone, she had been confident.
"Wait a moment," Reina said. She reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook of sheet music.
Then, she reached into her larger equipment bag and produced a portable electronic keyboard. She set it up with practiced ease, finding the power outlets and connecting the cables without needing his help. Once she was ready, she sat directly across from him. "You may begin."
Haruto looked at the mountain of gear and her dead-serious expression. He felt a flicker of surprise. "You really came prepared. Are you sure you trust a complete amateur like me to come up with a decent melody?"
"Whether it's decent or not is something we can only determine through practice," Reina replied, her pen poised over the paper. She tested a few keys on the keyboard to ensure the pitch was correct, then looked at him expectantly.
"Understood," Haruto said. He took a breath and began.
At first, Reina's brow furrowed.
Haruto wasn't just musically illiterate; he was bordering on tone-deaf. His humming was shaky and lacked any sense of rhythm.
But as the melody began to take shape and the notes started to connect, the look in her eyes shifted. She stopped looking at him entirely, her focus narrowing down to the sounds reaching her ears.
Haruto was humming from memory, a pale imitation of the original "Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~," but Reina possessed a professional's intuition. She could hear the potential beneath the rough exterior.
"Stop. Start from the beginning," she said, her expression now intensely focused. "Go slower this time. Hum a phrase, then pause, so I can keep up with the notation."
"Right. I'll try my best," Haruto nodded.
In the quiet of the evening, Haruto sat like a student before a master, humming fragments of a song he had heard in another life. Reina would listen, pause, think, and then ask him for specific details on the rise and fall of certain notes. It was an agonizingly slow process.
An hour later, Reina looked up at him. "I'm going to play back what we have so far. Tell me if it matches what you have in your head."
They hadn't even finished a tenth of the song, yet Haruto was already feeling the strain. He wasn't a singer, and humming for an hour had left him feeling lightheaded and short of breath. "Sure, let me hear it," he said, leaning toward the keyboard.
Reina took a deep breath, her hands hovering over the keys. She glanced at the music she had just written, and then her fingers descended.
A beautiful, clear melody filled the room.
Even though it was played on a simple electronic keyboard and lacked the full arrangement of the version in his head, that specific intro melody hit him like a physical force. It instantly transported his mind back to the most emotional scenes of Anohana.
Clap, clap, clap!
The performance only lasted about twenty seconds, as that was all she had transcribed, but Haruto broke into spontaneous applause. "That's it! Reina, you're incredible!" His eyes were literally shining with excitement. "A true genius!"
He had heard the hype about her being a prize-winning pianist, but it had always felt like a distant, abstract fact. Seeing her translate his messy humming into a hauntingly beautiful melody right in front of him was another thing entirely. In that moment, he thought she looked incredibly cool.
Reina watched his excitement, taking in the genuine sparkle in his eyes.
In her life, she had received thousands of "You're amazing" compliments. She had grown bored of them years ago. But for some reason, Haruto's praise felt different. It felt earned.
"Is there anything in that segment that feels wrong to you?" she asked.
"It's beautiful, but the rhythm is a little off from what I'm imagining. Certain parts should feel a bit heavier, more grounded. Right now, it feels a little too upbeat and cheerful."
They began to dissect the twenty-second clip.
Reina understood his meaning almost immediately. It was a matter of pitch and emphasis. Since Haruto couldn't use musical terms, she had to play through various variations, note by note, until he confirmed the right sound.
The progress was glacial.
By the time they finished that one small section, it was eleven o'clock at night. Haruto looked at the clock, his jaw dropping. He had imagined they could knock out a three-minute song in a single evening. He hadn't realized how much work went into professional transcription.
"It's late. I have to go. I'll come back tomorrow," Reina said, packing her things.
"Wait. This is going to take you days, isn't it? It feels wrong to have you do all this for free. Is there anything I can do to... pay you back?" Haruto asked tentatively.
"If I were looking for a reward, I wouldn't have agreed to help in the first place," Reina replied, her voice calm and level as she looked him in the eye. "The time I spend here is something you can't truly repay with a simple transaction."
"I agreed to your request because I find the process itself rewarding. I am enjoying the work."
"And what's the verdict so far?" Haruto asked.
"It's... acceptable," she said, a tiny, rare smile touching her lips. "To be honest, I came here hoping to see you make a fool of yourself. A musical illiterate telling me he had a 'brilliant' melody in his head sounded like a delusion. I thought you had finally lost your mind. But in reality..."
"Tonight, I've witnessed the birth of a truly excellent piece of music. And since I'm the one putting it on paper, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I genuinely like this song. You don't need to feel like you owe me anything."
Haruto was silent. He admired her integrity, the "noble spirit" of a true artist, but he still felt like he was taking advantage of her.
"A sense of accomplishment, huh? Well... if you like the song that much..." Haruto paused, thinking. "Would you like to be credited for it?"
"Credited?" Reina looked at him with curiosity.
"The commercial rights will stay with me, obviously. We'll make that clear when we register the copyright. But for the composer credit, why don't we list it as a collaboration? You're the one actually doing the work of turning sounds into a score; that's a creative act in itself. You don't need the money, and I don't have much else to offer, so if you like the song, we can list the composers as myself and 'Airi'."
Reina stared at him, her eyes searching his. "Are you serious?"
She was tempted.
It wasn't about fame; she genuinely loved the melody they were creating.
"Why not? I'll hold the rights, so it doesn't really matter how many names are on the 'created by' line. I'm a novelist, not a musician. I don't need to hog the spotlight," Haruto said, noticing her interest.
Reina looked at the sheet music in her hand and let out a long breath. "Don't come crying to me later if you regret it. If this song gets chosen as the theme and becomes a hit, being the sole creator looks a lot better than being a co-author. The 'musical genius' halo will be much smaller for you."
"Do you really think I'm a musical genius? What good is a halo if it shatters the second someone asks me a basic question about scales? I'd be exposed as a fraud in five seconds," Haruto laughed.
Reina looked at him, remembering his off-key humming from the last few hours.
A genuine laugh bubbled up from her chest, her cold exterior melting away.
She didn't say another word. She just slung her keyboard over her shoulder and headed for the door, a lingering smile on her lips.
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