Friday, November 1st.
Yosuga rose early, washed up, dressed carefully, and immediately headed out the door. After all, the moment he had anticipated for over six months had finally arrived: the new series by his favorite author, Shiori Takahashi, was launching today.
Looking back on his state of mind over the past year, Yosuga found it slightly comical. It had started with a chance encounter, spotting a standalone volume of Blue Spring Ride in a bookstore, and he had instantly become a devoted fan of the author.
That spark had turned into an obsession with the follow-up work, Anohana.
Back when everyone believed Shiori Takahashi was a cute high school girl, Yosuga had even fantasized about meeting her at a fan signing, having a beautiful encounter, and falling in love just like a protagonist in a novel. Then came the national broadcast six months ago. Seeing Haruto's face on screen had been a shock to his system, momentarily shattering his "otaku soul." But half a year later, all of that was in the past. His love for the stories transcended whether the creator was a boy or a girl.
"Parasyte!"
Yosuga whispered the name to himself.
Usually, when a major new series was about to launch in Azure Kiyozawa, the magazine would spend at least two issues building hype through promotional segments.
Yet, for some reason, he felt that the marketing effort for this new masterpiece by the "genius newcomer" was strangely lackluster. There were no posters in the local bookstores, and the magazine's cover didn't even feature a large illustration of the work. Even on the Kiyozawa Library official website, the introductory page for Parasyte was buried in an obscure corner.
Despite the lack of fanfare, Yosuga's expectations remained sky-high.
The pen name Shiori Takahashi carried immense weight in his heart. While the industry might not yet officially label him as a "top-tier" veteran, in Yosuga's eyes, Haruto had already surpassed most established names.
He arrived at the bookstore and paid 1,700 yen for the latest issue of Azure Kiyozawa. It featured a total of twenty serialized stories. Six of those were veteran titles that had once occupied slots in the flagship Kiyozawa magazine but had been demoted to the secondary publication due to declining popularity.
Even so, "a starving camel is still larger than a horse"; those six series possessed a massive built-in advantage in terms of fan engagement within Azure Kiyozawa.
As he walked, Yosuga flipped the pages until he reached the opening of Parasyte. The story began in the life of an ordinary high school student named Shinichi.
From the very first page, the narrative subtly described a world where society was undergoing a quiet, terrifying change. Deep within the urban sprawl, man-eating monsters were hiding in plain sight.
When Shinichi woke up that morning, he thought he heard a cold voice murmuring near him. He dismissed it as a hallucination and went about his day. The opening took its time establishing the setting and Shinichi's personal relationships: his steady and reliable father, his kind and graceful mother, and his female friend, Satomi, for whom he harbored a quiet affection.
The prose in these first few pages was the kind of patient world-building Yosuga was familiar with. This was a Shiori Takahashi story, after all, and everyone knew that a slow burn was his signature style. The only question was how many chapters it would take before the plot truly exploded.
However, as Yosuga read further, his attention was gripped by a sudden shift in tone.
The narrative utilized a flashback to show what had happened to Shinichi the night before.
While he was sound asleep, a bizarre creature resembling a small worm had crawled into his home. And it was heading for his nose to burrow into his brain!
A sudden sneeze from the sleeping boy ejected the creature, which then desperately tried to enter through his right arm to reach its destination. Shinichi's reflexes were sharp; he had managed to tie a cord around his arm, restricting the creature's progress. When his parents rushed into the room, fearing an intruder, the wound on his arm had mysteriously vanished. His parents were left wondering if he had experimented with some drugs and hallucinated the entire event.
Yosuga had expected the story to remain mundane for a while longer, but he found himself fully immersed after only a thousand words.
Shinichi's right hand would operate his phone on its own while he napped. Later, when Shinichi instinctively tried to save a little girl from an oncoming car, his right hand moved of its own volition. It hardened like a steel pillar, physically stopping the speeding vehicle.
"What on earth is this?" Yosuga blinked. "Did Shiori-sensei give up on the tearjerkers? Is he writing a battle series now?"
The opening certainly made it seem that way. No matter how dense Shinichi was, he couldn't ignore his hand's behavior anymore. Once home, under the threat of Shinichi stabbing his own arm with a kitchen knife, the hand finally revealed itself. A mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and a cold, inhuman eye sprouted from his palm.
The creature began to speak.
Shinichi's right hand had been taken over by a monster. Usually, he could control the limb, but if the creature chose to, it could seize total control to browse the web, read books, or even manifest a mouth to feed itself.
"This setting is incredible," Yosuga muttered, his excitement building. "The protagonist basically has a sentient, supernatural hand."
Because it had failed to reach his brain, the parasyte, whom Shinichi named "Migi", was forced to inhabit the arm. The two were now "partners in fate," linked for survival. One needed a host to live, and the other wanted to keep his limb. Despite their mutual suspicion and fear, they had no choice but to coexist.
"From now on, we must work together to survive. There is no other way," Migi's mouth stated in a flat, logical tone.
Shinichi, his mind reeling from the horror and violation of his body, felt only a surge of helpless anger.
"This is fascinating," Yosuga thought. The concept was remarkably fresh.
He reached the end of the first chapter. In an alley near Shinichi's home, a dog was seen devouring another of its kind. When discovered, the dog's head split into several fleshy petals, restructuring its biology into a mass of blades and clubs. Fleshy wings sprouted from its neck, and the beast took flight, diving toward Shinichi.
A battle erupted. As any reader of a first chapter knows, an early boss is usually just "experience points" designed to showcase the protagonist's potential. Migi transformed Shinichi's hand into a set of lethal claws, extending the limb over a dozen meters to pierce the heart of the infected dog.
When he finished the final page of the first chapter, Yosuga felt a sense of longing for more. Yet, he also felt a slight disconnect.
To be honest, the first chapter of Parasyte was undeniably engaging. The world-building and the horror of the creatures were a breath of fresh air. The idea that a dog, a rat, or even a cockroach could be a man-eating monster was terrifying. If you were caught alone, they would open their maws and crush your skull in an instant.
This kind of dark, urban fantasy was a rarity in the market. However, on the major light novel forums and within the Shiori Takahashi fan groups, the reaction was more divided.
"This is not what I expected from Shiori-sensei at all,"
"I was really hoping for another emotional journey like To the Moon. I am not sure how I feel about a combat series."
"How can you even call this a combat series yet?"
"Isn't it obvious? The plot will just be the protagonist and Migi fighting off more monsters until he becomes the strongest human on Earth."
"Do not project your own generic tropes onto Shiori-sensei! People said To the Moon would be a disaster when it started, and look how that turned out."
"Honestly, I think Parasyte is great! It is way more exciting than the first chapters of Anohana or To the Moon."
"I joined the fandom because of the emotional impact of his work. I want To the Moon part two. I do not want him to pivot into a typical shonen author."
"I think everyone is just still dealing with the lingering sadness of To the Moon. They are comparing everything he writes to that one specific feeling."
"I am supporting him no matter what. It is only the first chapter, and people are already being so picky. Besides, with a dark fantasy setting like this, who's to say he won't break our hearts later?"
"Haha, there is no way Parasyte will be a tearjerker. It is just monsters eating people in the city..."
Overall, the reception for the first chapter was positive. Haruto's fans might have had their complaints, but they were largely on board. It was, after all, only the first installment.
Readers didn't expect a profound emotional climax in the first few pages. To the Moon had used seven chapters of foundation before the eighth triggered an explosion of emotion.
Anohana had built up its entire narrative just for the final payoff. On the surface, Parasyte looked like a story about humans fighting monsters. But beneath that, the author was already planting seeds for a discussion on the meaning of human existence. To us, the parasites are evil monsters.
But to the thousands of other species on the planet, what are humans? It was a work designed to make the audience reflect on the nature of life itself. Much like Fullmetal Alchemist, those who only saw the "hot-blooded action" were missing the point. The series earned its "masterpiece" status through its exploration of the human soul.
But for now, the story was still in its infancy. After the first week of serialization, the popularity data for the twenty series in Azure Kiyozawa was released.
Parasyte debuted in fourteenth place.
For a series that had received almost zero promotional support from the publisher, this was an impressive start. Haruto's loyal fanbase from Anohana and To the Moon was carrying the series. Even the top ranked authors in Azure Kiyozawa hadn't produced standalone volumes that moved five million copies; they couldn't match Haruto's raw brand power.
Hime, as his manager, felt a massive weight lift from her shoulders. She forwarded the data to Haruto immediately.
'Fourteenth?'
Haruto looked at the message on his phone without much of a reaction. He hadn't expected the first chapter to set the world on fire, so he remained perfectly calm.
"So... did you memorize that note?"
In the Manga Research Clubroom, Shizuru sat at the front of the class behind an electric keyboard. Her finger struck a single key, letting the note ring out. When she saw Haruto staring into space, her voice sharpened.
"I am sorry, senpai. I was just lost in thought for a second," Haruto said, quickly trying to appease her. He saw the slight pout on her beautiful face. He had been bothering her to teach him music theory, which had almost nothing to do with manga, and wasting her time only to daydream was admittedly poor form.
"Sigh..."
With the lesson interrupted, Shizuru slumped into her chair and let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Is something wrong, senpai?" Haruto asked, noting the gloom on her face.
"My latest manuscript was rejected again," she said, resting her chin on the desk with a bored expression. "The editors in Tokyo have zero taste. I have submitted to four different magazines, and not one of them would take it. And the students here are just as bad. Everyone is flocking to the Fine Arts Club, and no one even looks at the Manga Club."
"I have been meaning to ask you something," Haruto said after a moment of hesitation. "If your goal is to become a professional manga artist, isn't running this club a huge drain on your time? We have been in school for two months and you haven't recruited a single other person. Why not just dissolve the club and focus on your drawing?"
"How could I do that? The seniors would haunt me!" Shizuru gave him a flat look. "They just graduated, and I am the only one left to carry the torch. If I let it die on my watch, I would never be able to face them again."
"The problem is our membership count. If we do not show some sign of activity or results soon, the Student Council is going to issue a mandatory dissolution order."
"So, by 'results,' you mean getting a member's work serialized in a magazine?" Haruto asked.
"Exactly. That is the only thing that counts as a success for a club like ours. Last year, the previous president had a short story in a local Tokyo magazine, so we were safe. But he is gone now, and I am struggling," Shizuru explained.
"Is the barrier to entry for manga magazines really that high?" Haruto asked. For the past year, he had been focused entirely on the publishing world of light novels. He didn't know much about the manga industry. While he read manga as a fan, he never looked into the business side of the medium.
"The competitive pressure is about the same as the novel industry," Shizuru said, looking at him with a sense of defeat. "Actually, never mind. Why am I even complaining to you? You are the guy who can get a series into Kiyozawa Library like it is nothing. You wouldn't understand my struggle."
"It was hardly 'nothing.' My new series was rejected by the editorial board three times before it finally passed," Haruto said with a laugh.
Over the past week, Haruto had developed a good impression of his senpai. She was beautiful, generous, and genuinely helpful. Although he had initially sought her out only to learn art and music, seeing her so distressed made him curious.
"Senpai... would you mind if I took a look at your manga?" he asked after a short pause.
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