On the way back from the Manga Research Club, Tsushima Kagami took the food money Yukinoshita Shizuku had given him and found a nearby noodle shop to settle his dinner.
"Welcome! We have seats over here. What would you like to order?"
As soon as Tsushima Kagami entered the shop, he saw the girl whom Komoe-sensei had called Shimizu Nayotake earlier that day.
He felt the name was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't recall which anime he had seen it in. In the end, he didn't dwell on it and sat directly in a vacant seat nearby.
Unlike the sailor uniform she wore at school, Shimizu Nayotake had now changed into the ramen shop's staff uniform. She wore an apron, and a white kerchief wrapped the back of her head, tying her hair into a capable single ponytail. She had transformed into a poster girl.
Tsushima Kagami met her eyes, which remained empty and indifferent, and simply smiled. "Student Shimizu, please give me a portion of thick chashu ramen."
Shimizu Nayotake nodded slightly. She wrote something down on a slip of paper, tore it off to hand to the kitchen, and then passed the bill to Tsushima Kagami.
Saying a quick "Thank you," he watched the busy Shimizu Nayotake while waiting for his ramen.
By the time he finished eating, the shop had entered its peak hours. Tsushima Kagami didn't bother the swamped Shimizu Nayotake again; he paid his bill and left.
Upon returning home, it seemed Yukinoshita Shizuku hadn't come back yet. He walked straight into his room and began pondering what to draw for his commercial magazine debut.
Among Hirune-sensei's works, Yuu-kun's Return was the debut work of that year, and the "Demon Back" scene was its most impactful moment.
In Happy Otoha-chan, the scene where the male lead performs a slam dunk was overwhelmingly oppressive.
As for Hiiragi-senpai Sniff Sniff Sniff Nonstop, while the improved art style was much more "practical," the impact and tension were somewhat restrained.
Should he choose practicality? Or should he choose visual impact?
Finally, he made a decision that honored his ancestors—The Golden Mean!
Tsushima Kagami decided to use the art style and character design of Hiiragi-senpai Sniff Sniff Sniff Nonstop to depict the plot of Happy Otoha-chan. Naturally, he would also incorporate the famous scenes from Yuu-kun's Return.
Commercial magazines like COMIC Kairakuten basically featured short manga, with each work being around 20 pages. At least three-quarters of those pages had to be dedicated to "combat."
Precisely because of the limited length, it was impossible to flesh out decent character designs or plots. Furthermore, since many authors wrote garbage plots anyway, everyone chose to abandon character and plot development altogether, opting to start the "battle" with a 5P orgy right upon meeting.
Tsushima Kagami decided to draw exactly 20 pages, no more, no less.
Once ready, Tsushima Kagami took out the drawing tools that Sayuri and the others had given him and laid them out on the desk.
B4 manga paper, specialized erasers, feather sweepers, blue pencils, screentones, dip pens with D-nibs and G-nibs, and ink.
After sitting down and spreading out the B4 paper, he first had to draw a storyboard.
The plot of Happy Otoha-chan wasn't much to speak of—it was just battle, battle, battle! Calling it Pure Love was a stretch; there wasn't much sweetness to it.
The main focus was on the scene where the heroine and her best friend come to watch the male lead's basketball game. He would use a massive amount of cross-hatching shadows to showcase the oppressive force of the male lead's slam dunk. Then, using clever paneling, he would connect it to the two of them engaging in a "second-half slam dunk" that night.
The slam dunk scene showcased Hirune-sensei's superb technical skills. However, the flaw was that it didn't provide the shock of the muscular, knotted "Demon Back" seen during the male-female confrontation in his debut work, Yuu-kun's Return. Therefore, Tsushima Kagami intended to draw that famous scene into this work as well.
After the storyboard was finished, Tsushima Kagami began drafting the first page on the B4 paper using a pale blue pencil.
Generally, there are three methods for drafting. The first is to sketch with a pencil, ink it with a dip pen, and then erase the draft after the ink dries.
The second is to draw the draft and then trace the lines onto new paper using a light box and a dip pen.
The third is Tsushima Kagami's method: sketch with a pale blue pencil and then ink directly over it.
Since the manuscript would be scanned into a computer later, regular pencil drafts would be scanned if not erased. However, pale blue markings are difficult to scan, so there is no need to erase them, saving a lot of time.
First, he drew the panel borders, then sketched the main characters.
When Tsushima Kagami finally completed the draft, he used a G-pen to ink the main characters. Because the G-pen offers rich variation in line width, it is more suitable for character contours. Once the outlines were done, he switched to a round pen for detailing and filling in the blacks.
Next came the backgrounds and background characters. Usually, backgrounds, extras, and the subsequent steps of filling blacks and applying screentones are left to assistants. This reduces the manga artist's workload and speeds up production. However, Tsushima Kagami planned to hand-craft the first original manuscript himself to savor the experience.
Before long, Tsushima Kagami was about to lose his mind.
Drawing backgrounds was already time-consuming and laborious. Adding the massive amount of cross-hatching undoubtedly supercharged the workload. This made Tsushima Kagami miss digital drawing, where the asset library in computer software could generate everything with a single click. Any scenery, any style—it could all be produced instantly.
He truly admired the big shots of the past who hand-drew all their backgrounds before things were so convenient. He also admired his past self for doing the same. He would never play around with Hirune-sensei's hatching style again—it was too exhausting!
When the background was finally completed, it was time for screentones, also known as greying.
Grey shadows give characters and scenes in black-and-white manga a more three-dimensional and layered look. However, since early printing technology couldn't reproduce greyscale, screentones were used to simulate those layers.
In the end, Tsushima Kagami gave up shortly after starting the background phase.
Indeed, it was better to leave this to the assistants. If he did all the work, how would the assistants improve? How would they progress?
No wonder the young people of Japan were all running off to write toilet-paper light novels. Typing was so much easier than drawing manga, and there was no artistic barrier to entry. Once successful, they could release a tankobon volume immediately.
Unlike manga, where even if you didn't get axed during serialization, you had to toil away for nearly a year to accumulate enough pages—around 200—to release a single volume.
Although you were paid per page during serialization, the rate was basically 6,000 to 8,000 yen per page. Only Shueisha paid over 10,000 yen per page. In weekly serialization, a deadly cycle often occurred: if you hired assistants, you couldn't afford to live; if you didn't hire assistants, you couldn't submit manuscripts on time; and if you didn't submit on time, you got no manuscript fee and couldn't survive. It was truly a beast-of-burden industry, second only to Japan's death-march assembly line known as the anime industry.
The anime industry was truly dark. The workload was more exhausting than working in a factory, involving daily all-nighters and overtime. Yet, the take-home pay wasn't even half of what one could earn working part-time at a convenience store. But since Japan had no shortage of anime dreamers, if you didn't draw, there were plenty of others who would.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard a knock on his door.
"Come in."
Wearing aqua-blue silk pajamas, Yukinoshita Shizuku pushed the door open and walked in. Her long hair was tied in a single side ponytail.
"Not asleep yet?"
Tsushima Kagami looked at the clock; it was already past two in the morning.
"Why are you up?"
"Woke up thirsty. I got up for water and saw your room was still lit."
"Did you find a part-time job today?"
"Not a suitable one yet."
"What are you doing? You've been in your room since you got back and haven't slept yet."
Before Tsushima Kagami could reply, she walked to his side and saw the manuscript on the desk, as well as Yukino, who was dutifully cosplaying as a paperweight while lying on the drawing paper.
Seeing Yukinoshita Shizuku approach, Yukino immediately jumped into her arms.
"Why have you started drawing manga?" Yukinoshita Shizuku asked Tsushima Kagami while petting the cat.
"I suddenly thought of a way to work part-time, so I'm giving it a try."
"I didn't expect you to know how to draw manga."
"After waking up, the Celestial Venerables, the Buddha, Amaterasu, and God gave me many things you wouldn't expect."
Perhaps because she had adapted to Tsushima Kagami's changes over these past few days, Yukinoshita Shizuku didn't probe further.
She simply looked at the heroine in the drawing, her brows knitting together.
"Why do I feel like your manga... isn't very decent?"
"Eh? Is it? I only drew a wholesome heroine. How could you tell?"
"In short, it just feels indecent."
"Your intuition is spot on. It's an adult commercial magazine, after all."
Tsushima Kagami didn't hide it from Yukinoshita Shizuku and told her the truth.
Yukinoshita Shizuku was first startled, then her face revealed complex emotions. It was unclear what she was thinking, but eventually, her expression returned to calm.
"Then... you aren't going to continue writing the novel?"
Tsushima Kagami was also stunned for a moment.
That's right. I was planning to become a literary giant. How did I suddenly end up drawing dirty books?
This sense of deja vu...
Start: "Studying writing techniques hard, I will become a Japanese literary giant!"
Later: "I've entered the industry, everyone please support me~"
______
Happy Otoha-chan
____
New Story: Starting from Their Seventeen Years Old
🔥We're handing out that '30% bonus' that makes your wallet smile. 😄
✅ Get immediate access to 40 early chapters for all stories.
✅ Enjoy exclusive material and special announcements!
Help us unlock these community rewards:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters across ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnutchan