Hajimemashite, mina-san.
My name is Kinchiny, and I decided I'd write a story related to the Bakuman series I love so much. I'm not a native english speaker, so I'm really stressed about my first work... .
Please bear with me, read it and comment if possible ! Any kind of criticism is appreciated, I really want to improve myself and make you guys enjoy my story as much as possible !
Thank you very much, and without further ado, here is the first chapter of Unknowingly !
In these early days of March, the atmosphere was still as cold as it was at the New Year's party. After Hiramaru Kazuya and Aoki Kou married, the Ashirogi Muto pair took some time off from working on PCP. This wasn't an easy task for Azuki Miho, Takagi Akito and Kaya Miyoshi; getting Mashiro Moritaka to stop drawing and working on their Perfect Crime Party manga, monthly published in Hisshō Jump, took several weeks of hard work and persuasive arguments. The three of them really wanted to get enough time to prepare Azuki's and Mashiro's wedding properly.
Hiroyuki Nakano, editor in Hisshō Jump in charge of PCP agreed to announce the hiatus for a month due to author's circumstances. Of course, both the readers of Ashirogi Muto and the fans of Azuki Miho as a voice actress knew what was really going on. After that huge commotion concerning the anime adaptation of Ashirogi Muto's masterpiece, Reversi, and who would be the voice actress for Naho, said manga's heroine, most of them strongly supported the young mangaka and seiyuu in their relationship. Their heartfelt, sincere words heard over the radio by thousands of people were well received by the public opinion.
It was Takagi's idea, as the story writer in the pair, to do a special chapter for PCP just before the hiatus announcement. Both the editor and Mashiro heartily agreed to it: a Perfect Crime set up by Makoto and his crew who were attending their homeroom teacher's wedding. They stole the wedding ring from the soon to be husband without revealing themselves. It was an elaborate plan that came to light thanks to Sigma, their rival, who indirectly gave away the ingenious idea three chapters before this one. They set up an incredible way of delivering the ring to the bride, using a tamed dove which flew over to her, under a thunder of claps. Moved to tears, the homeroom teacher took the ring from the bird and put it on his bride's finger.
Takagi and Mashiro really wanted to give credit to Niizuma Eiji, the genius mangaka with his seven year serialization hit, CROW, through their character Sigma. Without him, they'd have never come this far, they'd have never reached this high.
The special chapter got first place by a landslide. The public's enthusiasm was shown through their votes, and Hisshō Jump editing department received a ton of fan mails to congratulate Mashiro on his wedding. The same could be said about Azuki's agency in terms of fan mails. Reactions on social media were as warm and welcoming as they could get.
A roaring motor could be heard in the street where a foreign car was driving by, and a pricey one at that. Surprisingly, even though it was obviously a sports car, it had space for four persons. Three young adults were in it, two men and a woman.
"Mashiroooo !" Ecstatically said Kaya, trying to get his attention as he was driving in his Italian car
"Miyoshi, calm down please you're going to make me lose focus while I'm driving…" Answered Mashiro, slightly sighing
"Aaah~ Don't be like that, come on ! We're going to your wedding's party place ! Can't you be more excited than that ?! You tell him, Akito-san !"
Kaya was as energetic as ever, nudging her husband arm while speaking with an high pitched voice. Takagi rolled his eyes.
"Miyoshi, he's not going to change all of a sudden because of his engagement to Azuki… You know that he's the silent and shy type, don't make him embarrassed." Takagi stated, as he adjusted his glasses on his nose
The three of them were going to check on the place where the wedding party would be held, and get the payment done for the rent. The party was next week, a day after their marriage.
After that, Takagi and Mashiro would have to go back to work as the next manuscript was to be given one week later to their editor.
"We are just going to see if the place is as I viewed it on the website and pay… There isn't much to be excited about you know…?" Rationally explained Mashiro, as he took a sharp turn to the left as the traffic light went green.
"Bang! Bang! DARK PULSION! Kaching! Gupow!"
Weird sound effects and random flashy names for special moves you could only see in mangas were heard in the room of a certain genius artist. Metal music blasting through his high quality speakers set on the maximum volume level, Niizuma Eiji was as excited as ever on his new serialization called Zombie Gun. Having sworn to his eternal rivals, Ashirogi Muto, that he would get his work to reach 3 millions of copies sold, the passionate mangaka was trying his hardest to bring life to his characters in a way that would appeal to his fans and bring some more in.
Suddenly jumping on his chair, his screams grew more intense as he did some kind of what could seem like a ritualistic dance. Niizuma still wore his feather sweepers inside his collar, a habit he picked up when he was infatuated with his masterpiece, CROW. They were moving according to his movements but somehow never left his neck.
Just behind him, three assistants were drawing backgrounds and inking his manuscripts on their respective desks.
One of them was Masato Hibari, a 24 years old student in design school. He had long and spiky black hair that fell on his shoulders, brown eyes, and a nicely tanned skin. He was always having a chewing-gum in his mouth, saying it was helping him concentrating.
In front of him, Inori Honoka was drawing a graveyard background for Niizuma's manga. She was a 20 years old assistant who aimed to be a pro assistant. Her weird hairstyle in pigtails made her look like a high school girl, her blond hair adding a deeper note of innocence to her small features. Inori wore green contact lens.
The last of the three assistants was a pro assistant, Kazuki Iwao. He was a 30 years old man wearing glasses which had a similar style to what Takagi Akito wore. His short brownish hair was a bit unruly on top of his head, which made him look like he was the careless kind of person who neglected himself and his looks. That was far from the truth though, Kazuki was a strict kind of person and assistant, especially on himself. He was naturally assigned as the leader of the assistant team, being a pro and always hunting for perfection.
"Kazuki-san, when do you think you'll be over with chapter 24 ?" Niizuma asked to the assistant team leader, who quickly raised his head to answer while looking at the mangaka.
"Considering the amount of work we've already done today…" Kazuki sent a look sideways to the pile of manuscript pages on the corner of the main desk, before concluding.
"I would say we will be done in about three hours, Niizuma-senseï."
"PEEEERRRRFECT DESU! I'll let you give the manuscript for chapter 24 to Yuujirou-san then, I think I'll go to sleep in one hour! SLEEEEEEPING NIGHT!" Declared Niizuma, before turning away from the assistants and resuming his last drawings while shouting sound effects vigorously
"Night…? It's 3 in the afternoon…" Commented Inori, while playing with one of her pigtails with her left hand
"Shouldn't you be used to it by now, Inori-chan ?" Asked Masato, munching on his chewing-gum and smiling, facing his page
"I am used to it, but you are still not used to me telling you to stop using the 'chan' honorific with me uh ? Tsk." She replied, making an annoyed sound with her tongue.
"If you have enough time to bicker, hurry up and wrap up today's amount of work, both of you." Reprimanded Kazuki, as he was gathering next chapter's manuscript left on the ground by Niizuma.
The two assistants nodded and kept up with their pace to finish their part of the work in time. As announced by Niizuma earlier, he went to sleep at 4:00 PM, satisfied with his drawings. He knew that he needed to be in top form to get and stay to the top once again, like he did with CROW when he wanted to end it. But it didn't stop there, that need to be as healthy as possible. He wouldn't let it known to anybody near him, but he felt something was off… he felt like a predicament was going to happen. And his instincts had yet to fail him.
It was 4 in the afternoon, but the entire room was in the dark. Windows and doors closed, the apartment looked like it was deep in the night. A small light was dimly shining upon long and swirly white hair which was hanging above a page. Head bent on this piece of paper, the owner of the snowy hair was still, immobile. Eyes couldn't be discerned, most of the person's face was hidden behind strands of said hair. In the middle of the shadows dancing to the light's tune, there was one thing that could be seen.
It was a smile that, among those shadows, seemed as sinister as it could get.