"Thank you for today, Tsukasa-san."
In a Western-style restaurant, Kai adjusted his cutlery and said to Rin.
"It's nothing." Rin shook her head. "I was bored anyway. The streets of Jinbocho are really fun. You see all kinds of people, and that alone makes me happy. If you ever need help with something like this again, just ask."
She was truly easy to please. Even if left to her own devices and ignored, she could entertain herself.
After the meal, Kai took a taxi home.
Their houses were right next to each other, so there was no need to specifically escort her.
"See you then."
Holding her wide-brimmed hat, Rin waved goodbye.
"See you tomorrow," Kai said with a smile.
...
Early Sunday morning, while Kai was continuing to study Death Note, Heishi showed up again.
It was the weekend, but the man hadn't rested for a second. He was pouring every ounce of his energy into Kai.
If he had a wife, she might have already filed for divorce over his neglect.
"I heard from Yuta that you had something to discuss, Heishi-san."
Seeing the look on Heishi's face, the one that said he had a long story to tell, Kai set down his pencil. He boiled a pot of water in the kitchen, pulled out some high-grade tea he'd bought recently, and prepared to brew a proper pot.
When it was ready, he brought out some pastries, sat down across from Heishi, and nodded. "Go ahead."
"That can wait," Heishi coughed twice. "Fujin, where did you go yesterday?"
"I went to buy manga volumes to study," Kai said. "Why?"
"As long as you weren't meeting with editors from other magazines, I can breathe." Heishi let out a visible sigh of relief. "Jump does have an annual contract system, but as long as an author is willing to pay the buyout penalty, they can still leave. For someone with a hit manga, that kind of money isn't hard to come up with."
He picked up a strawberry daifuku and popped it in his mouth. "This is really good. Sweet, chewy, and doesn't stick to the teeth."
"Naturally," Kai nodded. "Tsukasa-san made them. Her cooking is always good."
"Tsukasa-san?"
"Yeah, Tsukasa-san from next door. By the way, she helped me study manga character design at the bookstore yesterday. I learned a lot."
"Uh..." Heishi looked like something had gotten stuck in his throat. He pounded his chest, his face contorted with regret.
So it had already come to this. The thing he and the Editor-in-Chief had been afraid of had finally happened.
'Using a honey trap. Magazine is truly despicable!'
Seeing this, Kai stood up with concern. "Are you okay?!"
Heishi waved him off, forcing the daifuku down. "You were just reading manga together?"
"Of course. What else would we be doing?"
The sound of boiling water came from the kitchen. Kai stood. "One moment."
He walked toward the kitchen.
Heishi's mind was in chaos, terrified that Jump's savior was being seduced away by the enemy.
He looked up and saw the remaining strawberry daifuku sitting on the plate. It was as if he were looking at Rin Tsukasa herself.
'Damn it!'
He looked away, refusing to acknowledge the daifuku.
A few seconds passed. His throat moved. He swallowed.
Kai came back with the tea, noticed that a few more daifuku had vanished, and smiled.
"Tsukasa-san's cooking really is something, isn't it?"
"It is." Heishi was weeping internally.
'How pathetic. I can't even resist sweets.'
"Fujin, have you ever thought about leaving Jump?" he asked directly.
"Of course not." Kai shook his head. "I believe in Jump's future, and Heishi-san, you've been serious and responsible from the start. It'd be hard to find another partner as good as you."
Heishi breathed out in relief.
"Then has Tsukasa-san ever tried to persuade you to leave Jump?"
Kai frowned. He understood where Heishi's head was at.
"No. We're just friends. Work has never come up."
He said it firmly, his meaning crystal clear. If Heishi kept doubting him, it would only damage their relationship.
"Friends?" Heishi grinned, teasing now, shifting the mood. "When you want to study manga technique, you don't come to me, your editor, but you go to the beautiful Tsukasa-san instead. Fujin, you really think I'm an idiot."
"It's just the restlessness of youth."
Putting on nice clothes. Cleaning up. Heading out at dawn. Not coming home until dark.
"That's a date!"
Kai said nothing. He slid the teacup toward Heishi. Then he looked up and found his editor giving him a knowing grin.
He smiled slightly.
"Haha."
They both laughed at the same time.
"Tsukasa-san is a very capable editor," Heishi said after the laughter faded, stroking his chin. "If the two of you ended up married, it would actually be great for your manga career, Fujin."
After all, in Japan, after marriage, a wife's priorities often shifted to align with her husband's.
Husband and wife were a shared enterprise. Rin would inevitably end up helping Kai with his manga.
'In that case, Jump would be stealing Weekly Shonen Magazine's best editor through marriage!'
The thought made Heishi practically glow with excitement.
"You're getting way ahead of yourself," Kai said helplessly, then replied with as much dignity as he could muster. "I could never exploit a woman's feelings like that."
"Perfect!" Heishi clapped his hands. "That line would be incredible in a manga! It sounds exactly like something Light Yagami would say."
"..." Kai was speechless.
He picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, and then asked, "Heishi-san, what did you actually come here to talk about today?"
With the important crisis resolved, Heishi moved on to the secondary matter.
"Death Note has been serialized for two months now. The eight chapters are enough to compile into a collected volume."
"Already?" Kai looked surprised.
Manga magazines themselves weren't profitable. Over four hundred pages of content sold for around two hundred yen.
Magazines were essentially advertising platforms. They ran on razor-thin margins, but the real goal was to drive readers toward buying collected volumes.
Two months felt early.
A lot of manga hadn't even found their footing by that point.
If the first volume sold poorly, cancellation was a very real possibility.
"It's not early," Heishi shook his head. "Death Note has already pulled in a massive readership. Even Weekly Shonen Sunday and Weekly Shonen Magazine readers are buying Jump just for Death Note."
"The popularity is there, and the marketing department's numbers say now is the right time to release."
It was summer vacation. Taking advantage of the free time kids had to push an early collected volume was a smart way to capture the market.
Since Heishi was this confident, Kai didn't argue.
"You should have led with this instead of wasting time on gossip," he complained.
"Ha." Heishi held his teacup, feeling the warmth against his palm, and smiled. "I figured you were already mentally prepared, Fujin. This day was always coming, and you've been looking forward to it for a long time, haven't you?"
Kai nodded. He remembered standing in that bookstore before Death Note was even serialized, looking at the Kindaichi Case Files stacked on the most prominent shelf.
'I can take that spot.'
That day was finally arriving.
He stood up. "I'll go work on the cover design. Heishi-san, make yourself at home."
This was where the strongest first impression would be made.
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