Rin (HAROLD Sakuishi) 38

Rin 38



p1: =============================
Their destinies intersect

within the ceaseless flow of mankind.

p2: =============================
Shun-kun, how are you feeling?

How am I feeling?
All of this stuff…
…is totally boring.
And heck, I’m tired.

p3: =============================
Dr. Tokiwa, what is Shun doing right now?
Please relax, ma’am.
None of the danger from when he synchronizes with one of Shino Mirai’s realities is present here.

Could you give me a rough explanation, one I could understand?

Roughly speaking,
we’re measuring his brain activity.

Specfically, we show a constant stream of footage in his mind, and measure the changes in blood flow to his brain.
That flow takes certain patterns, which our computers will be able to recognize after three full weeks of training.

p4: =============================
Wh-What purpose does that serve?
It will let him interact with the new system we’ve had installed!

That’s the new system?
It doesn’t look any different from the usual MRI.

p5: =============================
Sakura-chan, are you ready?
Yahhh! Give me a second!

I haven’t finished eating my cream puff,
and I can’t synchronize on an empty stomach!

You’ve met Sakura-chan, right?
Yes, at your birthday party, though we only said hello.
She’s Shino Mirai-san’s little sister, right?

Remember what happened last time you ate too much? You nodded off, and weren’t able to synchronize.
Then Dr. Tanaka, wanna go halfsies?

Sakura-chan is the first test subject for our new machine.
But she seems nothing like Mirai-san.

p6: =============================
Synchronization successful!
Heartbeat and brain waves within range.

Huh?
That’s…

We’re seeing what Sakura-chan’s seeing inside the Reality.

Using the data on changes in blood flow to the brain from the MRI scans,
our computers reproduce the images she’s seeing.

p7: =============================
Mirai-san!!

HOLY SHIT!
Isn’t that Reality Delta?

p8: =============================
Re:Member came in second?!
[background page] {
Ryuu Bumgarner!!

Have you met Ryuu?
Yes. We met for a moment during the medical check last month.

He’s the man who’s erased the most Realities!!

Yeah. Never saw that coming…

This is the first time Fushimi-kun’s moved above me.

The margin of victory between it and Presence was tiny, but…
Well, we did spend this chapter doing a lot of foreshadowing and buildup.

p9: =============================
However, the gap between us and first-place Lumina is still huge.
And in the end, our objective is to dethrone Lumina!

[sfx]: Grin!

And then, whoever comes in first the most times…
will grace the cover of the first issue of the new year.

Chouno-san, I’ve got a bit of a plan…

p10: =============================
Huh?

Furukawa-san, you ‘n your boyfriend’ve broken up?

Argh. I never want to see that man’s face again.

Huh? But didn’t you only just start going out?
You showed me a pic of him, and he seemed pretty hot.

p11: =============================
When we went to see the fireworks, a bunch of gangster types surrounded us.
So he left me behind and ran off on his own!
Can you believe it?

Whoa.
An officer happened to be passing by, so everything wound up fine, thank goodness.

Well, but you know. There ain’t any such things as a perfect man.

Right, Fushimi-kun?

Huh?

[sfx]: Snore x2
Fushimi-kun?

p12: =============================
[sfx]: Splash

Shoot, shoot. I’ve made a fool out of myself.
Of all things, the man in charge falling asleep in front of his staff…?

Fushimi-kun, why don’t you take a nap?
/ I’ll wake you up in an hour.

Thanks. I’ve been fighting to get the storyboard done this week, so I’ve barely gotten any sleep.

But with you and Tajima-kun working so hard, I can’t be the only one resting!
[sfx]: Glug

p13: =============================
Okay. We’re almost finished. Let’s get to it!
[bottles]: Sandman’s Bane

[sfx]: Scratch

[sfx]: Draw

p14: =============================
[sfx]: Chirp

Good work today!
Then I’ll see you next week.

[sfx]: Sigh / Wobble / Thwump
Again we’ve somehow managed to pull through.

Every week’s a struggle to the death.
Every week, I nearly drop dead from exhaustion…

Oh, that’s right. Didn’t the new issue of Taurus show up?
[sfx]: Stand

[sfx]: Fall

[sfx]: Wobble

[sfx]: Rip

p15: =============================
[insert]: PRESENCE / Double Issue / As Thanks for Our Huge Popularity

Whoa!

A double issue!
And the quality’s incredible, too…
[sfx]: Pour

Does Taki-kun have a bottomless well of talent?

p16: =============================
[sign]: Stake House Texas Clover

Turns out it was Taki-kun’s idea.
That stuff tends to reflect directly in your popularity, after al.
[sfx: Sizzle

Presence came in second, but it got enough votes to massively close the gap with Lumina.
[sfx]: Sizzle x2

Fushimi-kun, we’ve gotta keep up with him.
Huh?
I’ve already gotten the okay from the editor-in-chief.

p17: =============================
There’s not much point doing the same thing,
so we’ll do double issues for two straight weeks!

?!

Twenty pages times two, so forty pages…
[sfx]: Sizzle
And you want me to do that twice?

[sfx]: Sizzle
Plus two color pages for each!

C-Can I take off the week after?
Nope! No breaks!
WHAT?!!

p18: =============================
Now that its entered the next chapter, Re:Member’s getting interesting.

Reality Delta corresponds to Ancient Rome.
The dictator, the hero of his country, is assassinated in the Senate by an opposing faction.
The mastermind behind the coup d’état is dictator’s blood brother, the polycoriac man.

Within the reality, Mirai-san…
is the murdered dictator’s daughter.

p19: =============================
Sakura-chan was synchronized with it, but the whirlpool of sex and violence that defines this adult, political world flusters her.

Good morning.

[sfx]: Dash!

Was Sakura-chan crying?

The girl needs rest.
Shun-kun, are you ready?

When Shun first experiences the new system,
he succeeds in synchronizing with Reality Delta.

p20: =============================
[sfx]: Cheers

A number of the soldiers who had distinguished themselves in battle
/ back when the now-assassinated dictator had been a provincial governor-general
found that the Polycoriac Man’s stratagems had sent them into the Coliseum, where they were to be executed by swordsmen.
[sfx]: Cheers
And Shun is one of those people!

p21: =============================
[sfx]: Cheers
Take your sword, runt!
If you want to make it out of the Coliseum alive, you’ll have to kill me.

[sfx]: Bathump x3

If you use all the pages in the double issue to cover the Coliseum battle, I guarantee you you’ll make new fans!
After all, Shun has to make it through seven of Rome’s finest swordsmen, one after another.

p22: =============================
Understood. Please let me give it a try!

Okay. Now let’s eat some meat!

p23: =============================
We’re publishing a double issue two weeks in a row?

You have to give us some advance warning.
We’re barely staying on-schedule as it is.

[[note: the manga page is the same as on page 21]]

Seeing it live in front of me, it’s terrifying.

Stop, Shun-kun.
Take a break, and let’s iron out a plan.

You can’t! There’s no way! You’ll never win!

p24: =============================
[sfx]: Cheers

Mirai-san!!

[sfx]: Pull

p25: =============================
Shun-kun!!

Are you retarded? Even though you’re up against dreamt-up shadows,
don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that dying inside a Reality exacts an equivalent toll on your real self, too?!

[sfx] Bathump x2

It’s only inside a Reality…
that I feel like I’m really alive.
[sfx]: Vrong

p26: =============================
[sfx]: Clang!

p27: =============================
[box]: Coming next week
[below that]
Re:Member Double Issue
and furthermore…
TWO STRAIGHT WEEKS!!

Whoa. Fushimi-kun, that’s amazing.
Are you competing with Taki-kun?

[sfx]: Wobble

Oh, Furukawa-san!!

[insert]: Hey…

p28: =============================
Really, we only barely finished before deadline.
This week makes my time at Mizuno-pro’s feel like a cakewalk…
You were walking around like a ghost, Furukawa-san.

[sfx]: *Sigh*.
I went thirty hours without getting any proper sleep…
My body and heart are in tatters.

And you’ve got that for another week?

Yes. We don’t get a day off; we’re diving straight back in tomorrow.
I have to get home and sleep.

But Fushimi-kun’s gotten way less sleep than I.
I mean, he never cuts corners.
Plus he’s got work on the new volume.
W-Would you like a croquette?

p29: =============================
Ah, this is delicious.
[sfx]: Whoosh
I feel like fall’s hit us before I knew it.

If you’re that busy, is there any time left for your boyfriend?

Oh, we’ve already broken up.
[insert]: Yum. / Munch, munch
?!

But Re:Member’s an amazing manga, so I’m fine right now with just work!
Furukawa-san!

CANYOUTELLMEYOURNUMBER?!!
Huh?

p30: =============================
[sfx]: Slash / Scrape

p31: =============================
<no text>

p32: =============================
[sfx]: Slice!

[sfx]: Roar!
*Huff*
*Huff*
*Huff*

p33: =============================
Whoa, this scene is sick.

Shun’s gallant battle moves the hearts of the people.
[sfx]: Dahhhh!

Between the murder of their country’s hero
/ and their dissatisfaction with the polycoriac man’s misgovernment,
/ the coliseum is on the verge of a riot!

[sfx]: Stumble

[sfx]: Thwump

Fushimi-kun, what happens next?

p34: =============================
Hm?

Fushimi-kun?!

I never thought he’d go for the double-double.
He’s going all-out against me.

p35: =============================
Should we go for a double-issue run, too?
I brought a gift of bean daifuku for you to eat.
[sfx]: Stand
Hmm. We could do the same thing, but…

In the history of Taurus, what’s the most extra pages anyone has ever done?

Around when I joined the company,
I know Lumina did a run of four straight double issues.
Then I…
will do five straight!

p36: =============================
T-Taki-kun, are you all right?!
I really hate losing, so…
Go eat the bean daifuku.

[wall]: Honma Hospital

p37: =============================
[sfx]: Screech

Thanks for all your hard work.

[sfx]: Dash!
Mutou-san, it’s awful. Fushimi-kun’s—!!
Huh?

p38: =============================
[sfx]: Creak
Fushimi-kun?

……
Mutou-san?

Y-You all right?

Ooh, shoot. I’ve slept two hours!

Furukawa-san, I told you to wake me up after an hour!
[sfx]: Stumble
But I… I mean, you only just recovered from your fever of 40 degrees!
F-Forty?!

p39: =============================
I’m fine. After I got the IV, it did go down a lot.

Didn’t the doctor tell you you’ve been overworking?
And you look like you’ve lost weight, man.

[sfx]: Slowly

Okay, there’s just two pages left.
Let’s do it.

p40: =============================
[sfx]: Scratch / Scratch / Cheers

Shun-kun…
His injuries—will he be all right?

What are you, stupid?
Why’d you have to act so cool and fight them?

[sfx]: Pull

You’ve done enough, Shun-kun. Come back.

p41: =============================
[sfx]: Turn

Mirai-san!!

[sfx]: Chirp…

[sfx]: Tap x2

Good work!

p42: =============================
Good work!!

It’s a miracle, but we finished…
[sfx]: Collapse
I’mma sleep now.

With this, we’re back to the normal page count next week.

I’m sorry the manuscript’s late.
All the art in the second half was rough, so…

Nah… I spent the whole time I was waiting reflecting on all of this.

p43: =============================
Mizuno-san always says…
that the manuscripts a newcomer draws have to be filled with the things he likes.

I can feel that emotion in every panel of Re:Member.

But I’m worried pushing you like this will cause you to lose that.

p44: =============================
I’m sure that “like” isn’t enough to cut it.

If manga leads to amazingly wonderful things…
then maybe manga can knock you all the way down to hell, too.

This isn’t the kind of job you can do unless you love it, you love it, love it until you drop. I know it!

p45: =============================
Mutou-san, I’ll see you again next week!

Was he just a high schooler when we first met?
The manga he drew were these niche martial arts works that made no sense.

When was it that he became the man who can say something that cool?

Dammit, I nearly cried!

p46: =============================
<no text>

p47: =============================
[sfx]: Rise

Hm…?
When is it? Day? Night?

Huh? What about work…?
Right, I went to bed after handing in the manuscript…

WAH!!
[sfx]: Pop!
I slept two days straight?

p48: =============================
Love it, you love it, love it until you drop…
Damn, I must’ve sounded so full of myself…

And I haven’t even started on the storyboard!
[sfx]: Slump
Wah! And I’ve got a ton of missed calls from Mutou-san.
Six of them.

I’m through!!
[sfx]: Roll
I’m ruined!!

!!

p49: =============================
Hello?
Been sleeping

Yes. Sorry.
Hahaha. Thought so.

I feel better now.
But…
So Fushimi-kun…

The editor-in-chief said he’d like to have a meal with you.
Can you make the time?

Huh?!!

p50: =============================
[sign]: Payment

Mutou-san, he’s not about to tell me that I’m being cancelled, right?
Of course not.
Wasn’t your storyboard for this week pretty great?

p51: =============================
While Shun recuperates at home,
this time Bumgarner synchronizes with the same Reality.

Within, Bumgarner is at once a politician and a philosopher.
He faces the citizens gathered in the Foro Romano and gives a grand speech calling for the ouster of the coup d’état party.

[sfx]: Cheers

No wonder he graduated from Harvard Law.
[sfx]: Heh

p52: =============================
The coup d’état party flees the country,
but the polycoriac man dallies, which costs him his head.

At that moment, Bumgarner runs to where Mirai-san was being kept to find…

Shun-kun, we’ve safely closed Reality Delta.

What about Mirai-san?

When Ryuu ran to her location…

p53: =============================
he found one of the remaining members of the coup d’état…
had stabbed a sword into her heart!

Th-That’s the exact opposite of last time!!

What’s going on? Why the overlap?

p54: =============================
Maybe the guilt from committing murder…
caused her to bring on herself the pain of being the victim.

What in the world’s going on inside Mirai-san’s brain?
Well…
I figure anyone would be the same way.

The world that lies inside every man and woman
is no less infinite an expanse than the one that lies outside.

p55: =============================
I really liked that line.
I can feel the story’s depth.
Th-Thank you very much.

The rest of your party has arrived.

Thanks for all of your hard work!

Did your meeting end without incident?

Huh?
What?

p56: =============================
Taki-kun!!
Hey. Long time no see.

Taki-kun happened to be dropping by the editor’s office,
and he said you two are friends, so I figured, why not have him join us?

I myself just ran here after getting back from a business trip in Sendai.
We can’t have Taki-kun alone without his editor, right?

I-I see…
But us editors get along horribly…

p57: =============================
Weren’t you both twenty?

Yes.
I’m now able to drink.

Oh, I’m still only 19.
We were in the same year in school, but I was born in winter, so…
I’ll have some warm tea.

p58: =============================
Didn’t we first meet back in high school?
At the Sawamura Prize reception ceremony.
Yeah.

You won the grand prize,
while I only showed.
[background:
Prize money: 1,000,00 yen
Prize money: 100,000 yen
]

The speech he gave at the time is legendary.

Taurus today…
is simply boring!

But he’s proven as good as his word: right now, his serialization is a linchpin of the magazine. Amazing, isn’t it?
Dammit, don’t go immediately shooting down everything I say!

p59: =============================
Mori-san was completely pissed off at me that night.
[bubble]: The conversation started revolving around Taki-kun before I knew it.
Huh? I was sure Mori-san had set you up for it.
Hah hah hah

That’s right… I’ve always been chasing after Taki-kun.

The Sawamura Prize,
the Young Blue Cup,
serialization,
every single time…

Your pot is ready.

p60: =============================
Oh yes. Today,
we got the results for the most recent survey.

[sfx]: Sizzle
…Magical Girl ? Lumina’s stronghold has finally crumbled!

Huh?
You’re kidding!
This is the issue where our second double-issue ran.

And furthermore, Lumina… came in third.

p61: =============================
Huh?! After holding the top spot for a year and a half, Lumina came in third?!

That chapter of Presence had the payoff from the foreshadowing and a gun battle—it’s a winner!!

Our two youngsters here…
have finished in first and second.

!!

p62: =============================
Presence…

came in second!

Remember came in first!

p63: =============================
<no text>

p64: =============================
AWESOME!!

E-Editor-in-Chief, shouldn’t it be the other way around?
With Presence on top?
[insert]: SWEET!
The gap is so small, that would not have been a surprise.

At any rate, this means history has shifted.

The manga I drew was ranked the best in Taurus!!

p65: =============================
F-Five straight?!

Yeah. We’ll start in the issue after next.
Just doing two issues in a row nearly killed me…

Our contest isn’t over yet. I’ll be the one getting the cover of the first issue of the year!
Huh? What are you talking about?

Heh heh heh. You won’t be able to mimic us this time, Mutou.
You really hate losing, don’t you?

p66: =============================
Earlier, I asked him to do another set of two double issues,
but Mutou turned me down.

Huh?

…I want to wait a little while.
That’s the sort of thing an artist should do when he’s got more experience under his belt and a huge staff.

I don’t want Fushimi-kun to be the sort of artist who burns out in a flash.
[insert]: I never had any idea…
I’d rather keep reading his works ten, twenty years down the line!

p67: =============================
Because he’ll keep exceeding our expectations…
and keep on growing!
[flashbacks (first is to ch8p61, second is to ch12p59, third is to ch26p51)]: {
I know it’s during the match,
but I thought I’d specially let you see me in a swimsuit

Who will win this dance-off?!

I am no one's clone!
}

Are you trying to imply there’s something wrong with my methods?
Well, there’s that too, of course.

You’re just taking out your grudges from all the drinking parties.
The problem’s with your human nature.
Oh, there’s a taxi!

p68: =============================
As promised, I’ll give up on my plans.
My plans to journey with Ishidou-san.
Huh?

Truth is, I surreptitiously tried sounding Ishidou-san out.

Paris,
/ Sicily,
/ Barcelona,
/ Athens,
Eastern Europe and South America too.

But none of them seemed much to her liking.

I bet she’s not interested in taking a journey.

p69: =============================
<no text>

p70: =============================
Would you like to go on a trip some time? There’s a place I’d like to take you.

[insert]: As he bathes in the afterglow of victory, where is Fushimi inviting Rin?