Rin (HAROLD Sakuishi) 26

Rin 26



p1: =============================================
<no text>

p2: =============================================
[sign]: Aichi Prefecture Morishige High School

Yes. Thank you very much!
It’s all thanks to you, Mutou-san!

[sfx]: Beep

p3: =============================================
AWW YEAH!!

Pffh.
!

You keep screaming things while you’re alone,
and people’ll think you’re gross!!

p4: =============================================
Wow. So you’re fully entered into the Young Blue Cup!

And if you rank first on the survey, you’ll get serialized, right?!
[insert]: Damn!

I—It’s a tough hill to climb, so I doubt it’ll be that easy.

And there’s other promising newcomers who are entering as well.

p5: =============================================
When’ll it be printed?
In early March.
So around when we graduate?

We’re graduating, huh...

Oh, come to think of it, Honda-san, what are you going to do?

I didn’t tell you?
I’m going to a vocational school to become a beautician!
[sfx]: Smile!

Oh, okay. In Nagoya?
Yeah, out towards Meieki.

p6: =============================================
Asuna!!! Takuya-kun got his recommendation for Fukushi U!
[sfx]: Dash
Huh? Really?!

Isn’t his girlfriend going to a school in Kansai?
They’ll be super far apart.
That reminds me—seems Koba and Suu-san are gonna join the workforce.

Err… So Meng Huo, who was captured seven times, then released seven times…

p7: =============================================
A month and a half from now…
will be the last time
I ever see
the people in here.

[sfx]: Chatter
That’s hilarious.
[sfx]: Guffaw
Yuck.

But I’m the only one without any concrete plans.
[sfx]: Ding dong dang dong

I’m the only one
heading off the rails…

p8: =============================================
and into the darkness...

[sign]: Bizenkou

So ben, ih ou oo et seeiaaize, ahtah ou oo?
I have no idea what you just said.

[sfx]: *Gulp*

So then, if you do get serialized,
what’ll you do?

9: =============================================
I’ll go to Tokyo.
[sfx]: Munch
It’s easier to find staff there, and I can have secret meetings with my editor.

Well, what if you don’t get serialized?

I can’t think about that possibility.

A wise old man once said, “Where lie the fools who thought they would lose from the start?”
[sign]: Hold you not misgivings, sir, / For what you may become / By walking down the path you chose / Or else, the path is gone

So, there’s nothing in that head of yours besides “Get Serialized => Move to Tokyo”?
P—Pretty much.
[sfx]: Munch
That’s why I have to eat Bizenkou’s gyouza now, while I still can.

p10: =============================================
I’m sure there’s a hundred places in Tokyo with better gyouza than this.
No, no. This secret sauce isn’t something you can so easily beat.
So they won’t live up to Bizenkou.

I’m home!

What’s with you? You reek of garlic.

Another trip to Bizenkou?
You can’t get enough of them.

p11: =============================================
Yeah. I went with Katsuo.
Katsuo?

I guess you don’t remember… A long time ago, he went with me to see your band live.

Oh, that kid who looks like a monkey?

Well, he looks more like a gorilla nowadays.

p12: =============================================
…Sis, you’re going to England?
[book]: ENGLAND / Travel Guide

Yeah…
In June.
That’s still a long ways off…
[sfx]: Lift
You’re being too eager.

When I was in my vocational school, there was a study tour to the UK.
And I couldn’t go, so…

We never had much money.
Did Dad tell you no?

p13: =============================================
Mm-mm… I couldn’t even tell him I wanted to.

“English Pub Crawl”?
“A Thorough Analysis of the Premier League Teams”?

You sure bought a lot of niche books!
That one I bought for my boyfriend.

Oh, so she’s going with Asakura-san.

p14: =============================================
[sfx]: Ring

I’ve gotten a lot better recently. I can even properly go to school now.
[buttons]: Close / Display

I’m so scared…

[phone]: Call

p15: =============================================
[sfx]: Bathump x3
Rrrrring
/ Rrrrring

[sfx]: Bathump x4
Rrrrring
/Rrrrring

Hello?
[sfx]: Shocked!
Oh! Good evening!

It’s been a long time.
Was it okay for me to call?

p16: =============================================
Mm-mm.
You were worried about me, right? Thank you!

You sound better. I’m glad!
Really?

Looks like I’m getting into college via recommendations, which is a huge load off my shoulders… Maybe that’s why?
Oh, congrats!!

p17: =============================================
The school’s in Tokyo, right?
Yeah.

You’ll be in Tokyo yourself when you graduate, right?

Yup, that’s the plan.

Okay then. I wish spring would hurry up and get here already.

p18: =============================================
Oh, my manga’s going to be in the next issue.

I heard the news from Nishiguchi-san.

It’ll be a three way struggle to get serialized between NTF, right?
“NTF”?
Nishiguchi, Taki, and Fushimi.

What is Nishiguchi-san saying?
The nerve of him, putting his name in front…
Though it’s not just a three-way struggle.

I can’t wait to read the manga!

p19: =============================================
I’m so glad to hear your voice, Fushimi-kun!
Oh… And I’m happy to hear yours.

[sfx]: Slide

[sfx]: Whoosh

p20: =============================================
What sort of springtime will come for me?

p21: =============================================
[sign, giant character]: BOOKS
[sign, lower line]: Garcia & Marks

[magazine]: Taurus

[top line]: Boxer Sasuke
[box near title]: The Winter Campaign
[middle of the circle]: Young Blue Cup
[banner below the circle]: Entry No. 1
[left, vertical]: A man speaks with his fists--------Knock them down!!!
[bottom right]: The brilliant hard puncher, aiming for a one-hit KO!
[below that]: Nishiguchi Shuuhei

Wow…

p22: =============================================
[sfx]: Pow

[sfx]: Babababa!

Nishiguchi-san really went all-out…

The story’s orthodox, but…
[sfx]: Babababa!
[insert text, bottom-left]: The panel layout, the composition… I can tell how polished it is.

I get it. He’s reducing the damage.

Sasuke, watch out for his counter!

[sfx]: Blam!

He must have gone through a lot of meetings with Mutou-san.

Does Sasuke have a secret plan to turn things around?!!
Find out in the sure-to-excite Part 2!!!

p23: =============================================
[Title]: Sweets Girl
[middle of the circle]: Young Blue Cup
[banner below the circle]: Entry No. 2
[diagonal text (/ is where it cuts off) I want you to / sweeeeet
[insert, far left]: Whoa. The other entry is high-level, too!!

Dammit… I’ve lost all confidence…
[sfx]: Whirr
[sfx, bottom]: Whoosh

[sfx]: Crash!
Ah! Nee-chan!!

p24: =============================================
I just tripped; that’s all.
[sfx] Shaking
No need to make a big deal out of it.
[bag]: Books: Garcia & Marks

But…

You’re bleeding. Did you hit the guardrail?
Could you grab my books?

You could just order your books online.
[bag]: Books: Garcia & Marks
I wanted to take a look inside myself before I bought them.
And it’s good exercise.

p25: =============================================
[sfx]: Whispering

I’ll carry the books; you go home with your hands free.
[bag]: Books: Garcia & Marks

[sfx]: Rustle

The United Kingdom
Cotswolds
Lancashire
The Snake Pit

Rocking England!!
[small text]: London・Liverpool･ Manchester ･ Bristol ･ Sheffield and more!

p26: =============================================
I get the feeling…
my sister’s getting worse and worse.

I know that it’s an incurable disease,
that your cells die off, slowly but surely…

p27: =============================================
Huh? You want to redraw parts?
I don’t think there’s any need.

There’s a scene I’m personally unhappy with.
I want to redo just two—no, three pages.

When’s the final deadline?
The end of this week.
I won’t sleep until it’s done. Can you wait?
[shirt]: BRIANSTORM

p28: =============================================
I take it Nishiguchi-kun’s work gave you a shock?
Yes!

I’ve got the magazine freshly-printed in my hands right now.
[sfx]: Flip!

The second half’s brimming with energy, too!
[sfx]: Pow / Thud / Whoosh! / Gah!

The other work published with it, Sweets Girl, was damn good, too.

The author used to work at a pastry place.
I—Is that so?!
[bg]: Don’t think. Feel.
[bg]: Now, what does my stomach want to eat?

p29: =============================================
I’m not sure if I should be revealing this to you now,
but we editors have the power to fudge deadlines here and there.
Huh?

I’ll wait till the start of next week!
But in exchange, you send it to me ASAP!

R—Roger that!!
I see. Okay.

Mutou,
you’ve still got Mizuno’s work to proofread. Are you trying to get yourself fired?
He said he wants it to be to his heart’s content.

p30: =============================================
People around here might be speculating about Taki Kaito,
but I’m convinced “Old Boy” is going to win!

[handwritten]: Meeting with Mizuno-shi

You’re really going to meet with Mizuno-san?
Huh?
[sfx]: Gic
I bet you’re getting drinks with some girls again.

No, I’m…
Invite me sometimes.
M—Mori-san, you’ve got two kids.
The girls are college-age.

p31: =============================================
I overheard you, Mutou-san.
I won’t lose to anyone,
/ not even Fushimi-kun.

p32: =============================================
So, they’ll be going head-to-head…

[magazine]: {
Next Issue:
You’re the ones deciding what runs in future issues of Taurus!
Young Blue Cup
==Fought between six promising newcomers==
A hot manga battle!!!
[right side]: {
Old Boy
Fushimi Kinosuke
[circle]: Young Blue Cup / Entry No. 3
}
[left side]: {
Presence
Taki Kaito
[circle]: Young Blue Cup / Entry No. 4
}
}

[sfx]: Scratch x2

[sfx]: Fill

[sfx]: Scratch

p33: =============================================
<no text>

p34: =============================================
We’ll be graduatin’ in no time.
I hear Tsuji-kun’s gonna go to an independent league.

[sfx]: Pass

p35: =============================================
He ain’t even looked us in our eyes lately.
His papa must’ve given him a mighty good talkin’-to.

And then there’s that brother o’ his what went back to Osaka.
Rumor has it he done gone a bit crazy.

Hmmmmm. I ain’t much carin’.

His papa uploaded the music video onto Youtube.
But ain’t no one watching it.
And I care even less ‘bout that.
[sfx]: Shuffle

Oh! What about Taki-kun and Fushimi-kun’s manga?
They’re bein’ printed next week!

[sfx]: Turn

Now that’s interestin’!

p36: =============================================
Brrrr.

!!
[bottom left, giant]: Shounen Taurus

Oh, it’s the sample print!!
[sfx]: Sprint!
The pre-release edition of Taurus!!

p37: =============================================
[sfx]: Flip…

[insert]: It’s here! / My manga’s been printed!!
[mag] {
[top]: Old Boy
[circle]: Young Blue Cup
[below that]: Entry No. 3
[vertical]: Yes, HE… / is the Special One?!!
The erotic master recommended by the editors:
Fushimi Kinosuke
}

p38: =============================================
“Juice,” “Magical Girl ? Lumina,” “SANADA”…
and most of all…

[insert]: I’ve debuted in the same magazine as Mizuno Tooru!!
[mag]:
[top]: Gunners
[upper right]: Mizuno Tooru
[left side]: Charge onto the pitch of hopes and dreams!!

My name’s not on the cover.
My work’s at the very back of the magazine.

but…
But…
BUT…

p39: =============================================
For me, that was a great step!!
OHHHHH YEAH!!

Ummmm…
I might’ve overdone it a bit.

p40: =============================================
[circle]: Young Blue Cup
[below that]: Entry No. 4
Presence
rus‘s young pride: Taki Kaito

Huh? You still can’t sleep?

Then I have the perfect medicine for you, sir.

It’s called “Presence.”
Though it carries a hefty price.

The night I took Presence,
I dreamt a dream of times gone by.

p41: =============================================
Of playing catch with my father.
But strangely enough,
in the dream, I was my father.

And I could feel, really sense, the love my father had for me, his son.

I woke satisfied after a full night’s sleep.
It had been so long… And there were tears on my cheeks.

Good job thinking up something like this…

First, I was playing catch with my deceased father…
Second, a summer festival I went to with my mother…
Third, a game of shougi with my grandfather.
[sfx]: Pouring rain
Every time, in the dream, I was the other person.

p42: =============================================
Then I take it Presence has struck your fancy.

I want to buy it all.
[sfx]: Pouring rain
Be careful if using it daily.
/ The effect will start to fade.

And not every trip will be a good one.
/ There will be bad, from time to time.

[sfx]: Pouring rain
Especially for one like you, sir, who has walked the path of success…

I began to immerse myself in the realm of dreams
far more than I did the world of life.

One day, in my dreams,
I was my first girlfriend. We starting going out when I was sixteen.

During summer break, after we masturbated in front of each other, we shared a bed.

[sfx]: Spacing out

p43: =============================================
The editors say he has a genius that comes once in a decade…
I know they seek his inimitable talent.

Kashiwagi, I’m thinking of entrusting you with the coastal casino.
That would be an honor.

I was a man who could have anything,
but truth be told, I had grown sick of this world.

Aniki, you still suffering from insomnia?
Not much.

Leave me alone.
Good work today.

And tonight, too,
I will dream the greatest dream, using Presence.

Or so I thought.

…

p44: =============================================
No, I haven’t lost. I haven’t!!
[sfx]: Slap x2
The second half of Old Boy is its strength!!

Argh, I’m so tired.
[sfx]: Waves of people
How many times we gotta rehearse the graduation ceremony?
I just wanna graduate from this dominating control.

p45: =============================================
Isn’t our school’s song so lame?
I haven’t sung it even once.
[sfx]: Blah blah
Maybe they’ll let me write some new lyrics.
I’ve been holding in a #2 this whole time.

Sensei!

[sfx]: Turn x2

?

Sensei!
[sfx]: Tata!
I’ve decided I’m calling you that from now on.
Me?

p46: =============================================
[insert]: Yes, HE… / is the Special
Gahahaha! Shirou is hilarious!

My brother even laughed out loud.
This is awesome, Fushimi Kinosuke-sensei!
Also: why “Kinosuke”?
You gotta be happy about it, right?
Well, yeah…

But it’s like, I’m feeling all over again the difference in ability between mine and the other works…
That you’ve got all these professional manga, and then my amateur one.

I have to study a lot more, or it’ll be hard to make it as a pro.

p47: =============================================
Damn right!
There’s no way you’ll get serialized!

To be blunt, to me,
“Presence” is way more interesting!

How many tens of thousands of voices across the nation can I hear backing Hori’s opinion?
[sfx]: Yeah!

p48: =============================================
Really? I thought Old Boy was more interesting myself.

The other one was kind of dark.
I could simply laugh at Fushimi-kun’s, and I liked the characters.

My salvation…

p49: =============================================
During my near-dead high school career,
Honda-san was my only salvation.
[fb to chapter 14]: It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
/ I mean, it was a real masterpiece.

How many more times will we get to talk to each other, I wonder?

[sfx]: Yawn

Heh heh heh… What’s with calling yourself Fushimi Kinosuke?

p50: =============================================
Oh… It was just something I thought up.
It doesn’t really mean anything.

Hm?
[mag]: Taurus

Huh? Nee-chan, is that the latest issue?!
Oh, sorry. I went ahead and opened it when it arrived.

It’s Semanaka Tina with a bicycle kick!!
[sfx]: Thud!

p51: =============================================
Okay!!
I was right to redraw it.

Chance!
[sfx, bottom right]: Kick!
[sfx, far left]: Swoosh!
That was MF Imai Kasumi, the only player on the team allowed to change her position at will, with the score!
[sfx, bottom left]: Cheers!
She finishes the chance for her team’s second point!!


[sfx]: Thud!

[sfx]: Cheers!
Sideback Motoyama moves up from her position back deep to fire off a low cross!!

[sfx]: Thud!

[cut-off, from c25p66]: You might not have a track record as a player,
[cut-off, from c25p66]: but you have the potential to be the next Mourinho or Villas-Boas.
I am no one’s clone!

I thought I drew it well, but…

It’s hard to judge it calmly now.
[sfx]: Flip
All I can see are the mistakes.

p52: =============================================
His works are overwhelmingly impressive
Don’t miss his talent!
PRESENCE
Taki Kaito

At some point,
I started using Presence not to get a good night’s sleep,
but rather to know myself.

[sfx]: Blam / Thud / Pow / Kapow

The drug dealer told the truth.
Not every trip was a good one.

p53: =============================================
The girl I dumped,
the friend I betrayed,
the rival I kicked down,
the trash I beat up…

As I became those people, I realized
how much I looked down on the man I had become.

Yesterday, I buried myself.

Seems there’s no way I’m a man deserving of love.

For a while, why don’t you try not using Presence?

Then I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
[sfx]: Stand
No other medicine worked.

Sir, what caused the insomnia?

If it was something I could just talk about, it wouldn’t cause problems with my sleep.
I was trying to save someone, but…
In the end, I just wound up hurting that person.

Kashiwagi, this is a huge case. We’re counting on you.
It is an honor.

This job will be my last. I will wash my hands of this world.

p54: =============================================
[sfx]: Bang x4

Damn…
All the training he did, working as an assistant for so many pros, really shows.

[sfx]: BANG!
There’s no way I could draw a scene like this.

That settles it. I’ve been beat.

[sfx]: Vrroooom

p55: =============================================
[sfx]: BOOM!

Seventeen have been confirmed dead.
The suspect is still on the run…
[ticker]: Seventeen dead from explosion at construction site

K—Kashiwagi!

What’s wrong, Boss?
You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.

[sfx]: BANG x3

p56: =============================================
Huh? You can’t sleep?

I heard you had a good medicine for insomnia
called Presence—

Oh. You don’t want that.

Nothing good ever comes from knowing who you are.
Huh?

The suspect, who had been fleeing from police, was found dead on an outlying island in Okinawa Prefecture.
The cause of death was a drug overdose…

My insomnia has ended.

I took Presence,
and in the end, I realized:

p57: =============================================
the person who understood me the most was the one lovingly watching me from above.

p58: =============================================
I realized that at least I ought to love myself.

When I awoke, I was in heaven… No. It’s surely hell.

p59: =============================================
Meeting with Ishidou-san,

the three days of the Kou-no-Mori Festival…

Little by little, they impacted Taki-kun’s work.

[flashback]: They might be useful for something someday.
[flashback]: What I experience and engrave into my bones will be the basis of my manga.

p60: =============================================
From creation, to progression, to transformation…

He’s always one step—no, several steps in front of me.

Compared to him, I’m…
I’m…

p61: =============================================
[sfx]: Wind blowing…

p62: =============================================
[insert]: Man~
Taki-kun’s manga really packed a punch.

Well, I’ll admit his was ambitious.

At the end of the day, we are a shounen magazine.
He’s being choosey with his audience.
I don’t know if it’ll rack up that many votes.

Fushimi-kun’s was a simple laugh!
Shirou was awesome!
He’s got talent at creating characters, yeah.

But still, this year’s Young Blue Cup is competitive, huh.
Yeah. And the two works saved for last are just as much a cut above what you’d expect from newcomers.
They’re a pair of battle manga.

p63: =============================================
When will we know the results?
In April, I guess.

We’ll consider the results of the survey including just the entries,

along with the surveys from each of the individual issues,
go through a long meeting amongst all the editors, and then we’ll decide how we’ll serialize the winner.

p64: =============================================
Wow…
Sounds rough.

Nishiguchi-san, who do you think will win?

Well,
I will!

Or so I’d like to say…

B—But I bet it’d be one of the two youngsters.

[sfx]: Grin

p65: =============================================
Either Taki-kun or Fushimi-kun!
[box]: To be continued in the March issue (out 2/6)