Since demos are generally only used to showcase a song's creative ideas, melody, lyrics, and other basic frameworks and core elements, they don't need to be produced with great refinement and can be made at home.
Therefore, the two of them quickly finished producing the demos for the two songs and began preparing to mail the demo tapes.
Besides their primary target, Being, they also mailed demo tapes to other reputable record companies, focusing on casting a wide net.
And in this matter, Akira learned a little tip.
When mailing tapes, you should first mail a copy to yourself; that way, if a situation arises where you need to go to court, you can prove your status as the creator through the mailing timestamp.
After mailing all the demo tapes out, the next thing to do was to wait patiently.
...
After finishing all these things, Akira returned to his regular life.
Every day he exercised, wrote Kara no Kyoukai, learned music with Rin, played on the computer, and read manga; life was leisurely and fulfilling.
Oh right.
There was also the two days a week set aside for drawing manga, which nothing could interrupt.
Besides that, he added a big-ticket item to his home—an electronic keyboard.
He was currently learning the electronic keyboard from Rin, but he couldn't keep running over to her house to play every day, right?
Buying an electronic keyboard of his own was still necessary.
What's more, he could now barely be considered a semi-musician.
It was just a bit pricey, costing him nearly 100,000 yen.
Only the current version of him would dare to spend like that.
Time continued to pass, and as the rainy season gradually faded, midsummer slowly arrived.
With current daily high temperatures just over 30°C, although not as extreme as in the future, the air conditioner in the room was already turned on early.
After all, it wasn't like he was broke anymore.
He had already stuffed the refrigerator's fridge section with all kinds of drinks, and even the freezer compartment below was packed with popsicles and ice cream; it was simply very comfortable.
However, considering the issue of obesity, he wouldn't eat too much himself.
The rest were left for his assistants to eat as they pleased.
Time arrived at July 20th before he knew it, and the 33rd issue of Weekly Shonen Jump was released.
The content of the 3rd chapter of Fate/stay night once again sparked a heated discussion.
Because after the protagonist Emiya Shirou died in chapter 2, chapter 3 actually didn't continue with that plotline, but instead suddenly shifted the camera to Tohsaka Rin!
"What is this doing? Where is Shirou?!"
"Are they just ignoring the protagonist's corpse?"
"Is this really a rookie Manga Artist? Who draws manga like this?"
"Doesn't the editor care?"
Meanwhile, the plot timeline rewound to two days prior, quickly reviewing the story of chapter 1 from Tohsaka Rin's perspective, while simultaneously unraveling some of the mysteries planted in chapter 1.
"Rin, who hasn't woken up yet, is so cute; I declare this is my new wife."
"The person above hasn't woken up yet, right? Rin has long been my wife."
"I think both people above haven't woken up."
As the plot progressed, the conversation between Tohsaka Rin and someone on the phone, the late-night summoning ritual, and the summoned Archer completely exploded the amount of information in chapter 3.
"Master, Servant, Holy Grail War... the worldview is finally starting to be revealed!"
"The setting sounds kind of cool."
"I didn't expect that dark-skinned man to be a summoned familiar; then the spear-wielding man who killed Shirou must also be a familiar, right?"
"To the one above, that's called a Servant."
"The stylishness of the incantation is off the charts! Mochizuki-sensei really gets it!"
"Damn it! Isn't Rin the heroine? Why give her a male Servant!"
"What is Shirou going to do?"
...
...
Due to the camera shift in chapter 3, as well as the unfolding of various settings and the worldview, it sparked a massive amount of discussion online, with the buzz even far exceeding the first two chapters.
But unlike the comments on the first two chapters which were mostly praise, the online discussion this time was clearly divided into two groups: those who praised it and those who criticized it.
Hisashi had already warned him in advance, and he himself was mentally prepared, so he was relatively calm about it.
Moreover, compared to the chaotic online environment of the future, the comments from these critics were still too mild; in his view, it was almost like flirting. Just a light drizzle.
Time continued to July 24th, when Hisashi called to announce this week's shōsei ranking—
"Congratulations Mochizuki-sensei, this week's ranking is number 1!"
Hisashi's tone carried a hint of surprise.
Originally in his estimation, because FSN chapter 3 suddenly shifted perspectives, it might cause some readers dissatisfaction, thereby leading to a lower ranking.
But now the ranking had actually risen instead of falling, and even returned to the number 1 spot, which was completely beyond his expectations.
If this kind of result could be maintained like this... without a doubt, Fate/stay night would become another One Piece, becoming the next pillar-level manga for Shonen Jump!
"It's actually number 1?"
Akira also felt somewhat surprised. After all, judging from the online discourse, he felt his ranking might drop to 5th or 6th place, so he didn't expect to seize first place instead.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. In the online environment of the future, it is often 10% of the people who make 90% of the noise. It seems that not only the future, but the current online environment is no exception.
The number 2 spot this week became One Piece. Although the other party finished the Arlong Park arc last week, this week it hadn't entered a new arc yet, but rather the classic reward settlement segment.
It mainly covered Luffy obtaining his first bounty, as well as the reactions of various forces on the great sea. This trick is often used in the entertainment and "copycat" style web novels of the future, and it is also one of the highlights of this type of web novel, but looking at it now, he didn't expect Oda to play this hand. And he played it quite smoothly.
And thinking about it carefully, it's a bit hard to keep a straight face: One Piece has been serialized for nearly two years, and Luffy has been shouting about becoming the Pirate King since the first chapter, yet only now is he getting his first bounty. It's somewhat absurd.
In addition, Red-haired Shanks, who appeared at the end of this chapter, had a large dark shadow drawn on his face for some reason, making him look like a villain, and he almost couldn't keep a straight face either.
Meanwhile, the situation for the other new serialization, The Prince of Tennis, was somewhat tragic. After the other party only achieved 5th place in chapter 1, the shōsei ranking for chapter 2 this week dropped all the way to 10th place, making people sweat for them.
If it continues like this, I'm afraid they'll be notified of cancellation once the newcomer protection period ends.
Out of curiosity, he took a rough look, and completely lost it. The content of this chapter was actually fine, standard, but he felt the main problem was in the artwork.
Since he had only watched the anime of The Prince of Tennis in his past life, the image of the protagonist Echizen Ryoma in the first chapter of the manga was slightly different from his impression, but he was still a cool, handsome kid.
But for some reason, in chapter 2, Konomi Takeshi suddenly took off Echizen Ryoma's hat, yet neither the hairstyle nor the face was drawn very well, suddenly turning Ryoma into a third-rate villain.
And it wasn't just that it wasn't drawn well, he even specifically drew several close-ups, as if he was afraid others wouldn't know how badly he had drawn it. Who could stand that?
Seeing this scene, he couldn't help but flip through his own manga again, and after confirming there were no places where the artwork had collapsed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
And, I have to say, his artwork is truly pleasing to the eyes!...Wait.
He suddenly thought, could the reason why the other party's manga ranking dropped so severely while his manga ranking rose instead be right here?
Did the other party sacrifice themselves to give him a boost? Are they that great?
In any case, regardless of what the truth actually was, he still silently thanked the other party in his heart.