"That's wonderful, Kaos! I'm so proud of you."
"Thank you, mom," Kaos said into her phone. She was walking back to the dorm. Her afternoon meeting with her editor had gone wonderfully, and so her first instinct had been to call her mother and give her the good news. "Whether or not it's serialized is ultimately dependent on the reader survey, but Amisawa feels like there's a really, really good chance here…"
"Of course there is!" her mother replied. "You're such a talented manga artist. I can't wait until it's published and I can show it to everyone back here at home."
"Mom…" Kaos was about to tell her what she said was embarrassing. But it wasn't, not really. This was why she drew it, right? For people to enjoy it. "Thank you. I hope it makes everyone smile and laugh."
For so long, it had been two steps forward and one step backward for Kaos. Now, finally, it felt like things were maybe starting to fall into place. She had to do really well with The Stars Aligned. Then, perhaps it would be serialized. Her editor had praised it and again reiterated that there was a strong potential for serialization with it. But Kaos also suspected she wanted to be certain. She wanted to see Kaos come through with quality manuscripts, she wanted to see The Stars Aligned get positive responses in the reader surveys, and she wanted to be sure that Kaos could actually handle all this.
Kaos couldn't really blame her. In Amisawa's position, she'd want to be certain too.
After talking with her mother, Kaos put her phone in her pocket and picked up her pace a little as she walked along. Part of her felt like she was still floating on air. Part of her was still extremely nervous. She might have thought steps toward success would help with this some, but perhaps that would take even more time. Waiting to cross a street, she replayed Amisawa's words in her mind.
I'm proud of how far you've come and that you're living up to the potential I saw in you. Work hard on the manuscript. Then we'll see what the reader surveys say after it's published. Remember, it's not going to get any easier and will actually get much harder. But keep at it, just like you have been. You have a lot of people supporting you.
Recalling her praise brought a smile to Kaos's face. But her other words had stuck with Kaos as well. She knew she couldn't rest easy.
Back in her room at the dorm, Kaos immediately started on the manuscript that would be the debut of The Stars Aligned. She had to work quickly. That alone would be difficult, but she also had to produce outstanding work. This would require all her power and concentration. And since this would be the readers' introduction to the characters, she really needed to stick the landing. One never got a second chance to make a first impression in life, and that went for fictional characters as well.
Sitting at the table in her room, Kaos started drawing on her tablet and saw her next manuscript slowly begin to take shape. She spent the rest of the day there once again, as her manuscript got larger and larger. She did take a few breaks this time, unlike when she had drawn up the storyboards. She had to work well, but not to the point of absolute exhaustion again. She filled in her friends on how her meeting with her editor had gone.
When she was back to work the next day, she looked up from the table and noticed Koyume shuffling around, putting papers into a bag and changing her clothes.
"Heading out, Koyume?" Kaos asked, laying her tablet down.
"I've got a meeting with my editor this morning," Koyume said, as she buttoned her blouse. "Lots of things to talk about, you know?"
"Good luck," Kaos said, nodding. Koyume was serialized but rarely seemed to have any trouble dealing with the pressures that came with that. "I guess the work on your new storyboard went well?"
"Yes!" Koyume said. She reached into her bag, pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Kaos. "See, here's its summary."
"This is…a chart?" Kaos said. The paper showed a number of different miniature character portraits with names under them and arrows pointing between different ones saying things like 'crush,' 'rival,' 'friend,' and so on. To no surprise, the boy characters all resembled Tsubasa. If it weren't for the character portraits, Kaos might have thought it was one of those complicated diagrams from her science textbook.
"Yep!" Koyume said. "There's a lot of drama in this one, so it's one big love triangle."
"Koyume," Kaos said carefully, handing back the paper. "That almost looks more like a love octagon than a love triangle."
"Oh, I like that!" Koyume said. "Maybe I'll describe it like that instead."
"How do you keep track of it all?" Kaos asked. "It seems complicated." She thought of The Stars Aligned with its eight main characters, but there wasn't any sort of major, complicated drama in it. And Kaos didn't really have plans to add any.
"Oh, it's all up here!" Koyume said, pointing at her head. She put the chart in her case with the rest of her storyboard. "Eating sweets improves your memory, you know."
"I see…" Kaos wasn't so sure about that. But it apparently worked for Koyume. Kaos wondered if maybe she should eat more sweets, but she could barely get halfway through some things before her tummy was full. "That's impressive work, Koyume."
"Thank you. Well, I'm off," Koyume said, heading for the door. "And I'm going out afterward. So, have a good day, Kaos! Work hard, but not hard!"
"I will," Kaos said, though she wasn't sure moderation was really her strong point. "Where are you going out?"
Koyume stopped and turned around. There was a bright smile on her face, and while Koyume was usually smiling, Kaos knew there was only one thing that made her smile like that.
"Tsubasa has a meeting with her editor as well," Koyume said. "So we're going to eat somewhere together afterward…and then maybe something else…I don't know yet."
Kaos had been right.
"Like a date?" she asked Koyume.
"Uh..." Koyume blushed. "Maybe. I guess you could call it that?"
"That's nice," Kaos said. She pictured her two friends eating at a café or maybe holding hands while walking. The image was so cute and wholesome, she just wanted to burst. It was more difficult to imagine herself doing something like that, but Kaos was glad she was able to live vicariously through her friends if nothing else. Part of her wished she could watch them, but she probably didn't need to share that out loud. She smiled back at Koyume. "I hope you have a good time!"
"I always do," Koyume said. "Well, good-bye!"
With Koyume off to her meeting and date, Kaos went back to work. It was a little hard to keep her mind on manga at first – visions of Koyume and Tsubasa kept floating across her mind. But she channeled the warmth she felt from thinking about that into drawing her manga. Granted, The Stars Aligned wasn't quite a romance manga – and she wasn't sure how far she'd want to take it in that direction – but there was something about the whole Koyume-Tsubasa pairing that just made her feel so happy. It made her smile and feel warm, but it also made her want to draw and write.
She had made some decent progress on her manuscript when a voice at her door intertupted her.
"Kaos?"
Kaos looked up. Ruki was peeking into her room, holding her sketchbook and a pencil case.
"Hi, Ruki!" Kaos said. She waved her hand a little. "Please, come in. What's up?"
"Well," Ruki said, stepping into the room. "Since Tsubasa and Koyume have gone out, I figured maybe you and I could spend time together, working, chatting, whatever." She leaned down and looked over Kaos's shoulder. "How's your manuscript coming?"
"Steadily," Kaos answered, glad to be able to give an answer other than 'poorly' or 'slowly' for once. "I think I should be able to hand it in before the deadline." She suddenly felt nervous. "Of course, even after that comes all the waiting…to know if people like it…"
"It'll be fine, Kaos," Ruki assured her. She sat down at the table next to Kaos. "Say, may I take a look at it?"
"Sure…" Kaos passed some of the storyboard papers over to Ruki, who took a pair of glasses out of her pocket and put them on. Kaos smiled a little. Seeing Ruki in glasses was always a treat. She looked mature and sophisticated as it was, but even more so when she had her glasses on. It made Kaos want to draw and write even more.
Ruki skimmed through the pages, chuckling here and there and occasionally commenting "Cute!" At one point, she stopped and commented: "This girl looks a little familiar, Kaos…"
Kaos immediately suspected she knew which girl Ruki was referring to – the one whose appearance mirrored Ruki's. She looked over and saw Ruki pointing at a character on a page. She had been right. Suddenly feeling embarrassed, Kaos buried her face in her hands. One of her characters in her guest manga had looked like Ruki some, but here the resemblance was far more striking. And this was for a potential series, not simply a one-shot guest manga.
Koyume, of course, had drawn a number of characters that looked like Tsubasa, but neither she nor Tsubasa had ever seemed to notice for some reason. Ruki, on the other hand, was as sharp-eyed as ever. It figured that she would spot a character who looked like her.
"Uh, I can change her if you don't like her!" Kaos said through her fingers, not looking up at Ruki. Her face felt hot, and she was sure she was blushing. "I didn't mean to…I mean…I like girls who look like Ruki…and…I wanted to…"
"Whoa, calm down. It's alright, Kaos," Ruki said. She reached over and patted Kaos's head. "I like the idea of appearing in a funny, wholesome manga series. Well, a character like me, that is."
"S-She also wears glasses sometimes," Kaos said slowly, looking back up.
"Does she?" Ruki smiled and put a hand to her own glasses.
Ruki continued to skim through the work, reminding Kaos of Amisawa a little as she did. Suddenly she laughed merrily.
"Oh, Kaos," she said, holding another page up. "I didn't think characters would be aware of their own comic panels."
Kaos looked at where Ruki was pointing again. In that particular strip, one character was looking up from the fourth panel and wondering aloud, what exactly had happened in the previous three. The two girls next to her looked up alongside her, but couldn't figure out what she was looking at.
"I-I was trying to for a bit of ambiguous humor there," Kaos said. "Sort of fourth-wall breaking, but it's not entirely explicit that she can actually see the comic panels…" It was a bit she had seen in some gag anime and manga series. Granted, Kaos didn't intend to take it as far as they usually did, since The Stars Aligned wasn't meant to be solely a gag series. "D-Do you think it's okay? I can skip that or change it if you think it doesn't work!"
"No, no, it's good, Kaos," Ruki said. "It's cute. And clever too. I'm not trying to suggest things for you to change, Kaos. I'm telling you what I like about your manga. It's very good work."
"T-Thank you, Ruki," Kaos said. Being praised by her editor, well, that was part of her work (finally, anyway). Being praised by her mother made her happy. But being praised by Ruki felt entirely different. "I just keep worrying that maybe I've messed up something or done something wrong."
"You've done fine, Kaos, as we all keep saying," Ruki said. She put the storyboard back down on the table and peered at Kaos over her glasses. "Your manga is good, and your editor likes it. It's at least going to be run. So, don't worry about it."
"Thank you, Ruki," Kaos said quietly. She teared up a little. "I'm trying to be more confident, even though it's really hard sometimes. Your support…and everyone else's…it means so much to me…and I'm scared of failing…well, failing some more, I mean…"
"Oh, Kaos." Ruki reached out, put her arms around her, and held her tightly. "You never change do you?"
I really don't, Kaos almost wanted to retort, in pretty much any way you can think of. But any negative feelings she had were instantly washed away by Ruki hugging her.
A funny idea suddenly occurred to Kaos. She pressed her hands together as if in prayer, closed her eyes, and bowed her head slightly.
Thank you, God.
"Don't thank God, Kaos!" Ruki admonished her, chuckling a little. "I thought we'd been over that."
"Couldn't help it," Kaos replied, opening her eyes and grinning up at Ruki. Success! She had gotten just the reaction she had been seeking. Making Ruki laugh felt nearly as good as being hugged by her. Besides, she was writing more comedic manga, so it followed that she should be funny sometimes. She wondered what comedy manga artists were like in real life.
Ruki released Kaos from her embrace and said "You know, Koyume and Tsubasa are going to go out and have fun. There's no reason you and I can't go do something as well."
"W-What?" Kaos said, feeling a little surprised and perplexed. It was odd for Ruki to suddenly suggest this out of the blue. She was generally very serious when it came to their manga. "Shouldn't we both be working?"
"I suppose if you're that worried about not finishing your manuscript before your deadline, we could go another day," Ruki said. "I only thought that, well, that it would be nice. You and me going out, Kaos. Just…us." She sounded a little hesitant.
"I guess a break would be okay," Kaos said, nervously waving her hands. Granted, going out would mean she wouldn't get to see Ruki in her glasses, but still, she'd be able to spend more time with her nonetheless. "I'll think of it as gathering research for future manga storylines. Whatever we do, maybe I can use that in a chapter."
"That's the spirit," Ruki said, smiling at her in approval. "It doesn't have to be anything big. I know you probably don't want to go clothes shopping, though."
"I-I wouldn't mind doing that!" Kaos said. Granted, being small enough to where she could still buy from the children's department was a little embarrassing, but she could at least watch Ruki try on outfits or something.
Ruki raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure?"
"I, uh…"
"It's alright, there are other things we can do," Ruki said. "Now let me see…"
A voice just outside the room suddenly spoke up.
"There's a wonderful café that opened up nearby just before the work on the new dormitory was finished. I haven't had the time to visit it myself, but if someone were to go, try it, and report back to me how it is, I'd certainly be grateful."
Kaos and Ruki looked over toward the voice. Standing in the doorway was the housemother, smiling sweetly at both of them. She had a broom in one hand but also had a clipboard that she looked to be making notes on.
"Housemother…" Ruki said slowly. "Were you…"
"Oh, I just happened to be passing by while sweeping the hall," the housemother said. She handed Ruki the small paper flyer. "Here you are, directions to the new café and a sampling of their menu."
Does she always have things like these ready to hand out? This wasn't the first time the housemother had done something like this, Kaos recalled. Well, maybe she just cared about the residents of the dorm that much. They were certainly lucky to have someone like her watching over them.
As Ruki flipped through the menu, the housemother added "And if you're short on pocket money, just let me know. You can always go and pay me back later."
"Alright," Ruki said. "Kaos, what do you think?"
"S-Sure," Kaos said. "That sounds like fun."
"Excellent!" the housemother said. Very quietly, she added, "It's definitely a scenario where some progress can happen."
"What was that?" Ruki asked, tilting her head.
"Oh, nothing!" the housemother replied, adjusting her glasses. "You two have fun now and be sure to give me a full report on that café!"
…anyway, that's The Stars Aligned a nutshell…well, a pretty big nutshell, I guess."
Kaos sat across from Ruki at the little café they had gone to. She had ordered a chocolate parfait that looked absolutely delicious but had barely touched it. Instead, when Ruki asked her a little more about her new manga, she had launched into a long explanation of the characters and the little subplots and jokes she wanted to do with it.
"I see," Ruki said. "That's very thorough. You've put a lot of thought into this."
"Ah! I'm sorry for carrying on," Kaos said. "I know I get bad about geeking out when it comes to these types of manga and anime sometimes…and this is my own, no less…"
"That's alright, Kaos. I think the way you get into series you like is very cute. And of course, you should be enthusiastic about your own work. It's yours, after all."
"You think so?"
"Of course. That attitude will help you keep going, after all. In times when you get stuck or feel like you're in a rut, you can draw on that to help get you through it."
Kaos nodded. She wasn't sure what else to say, so she ate a large spoonful of her chocolate parfait to avoid having to give a direct answer. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake – after she had swallowed, she felt a sharp pain in her head.
"OW!" she said, rubbing her head. "I-I think I ate too much too fast."
"Are you alright?" Ruki asked, chuckling a little. "You've got to be careful shoveling down ice cream like that."
Kaos smiled weakly at Ruki. She liked making her laugh, but not in the act of embarrassing herself.
They eventually decided that they would be able to report back to the housemother that the café was indeed satisfactory (whether that had been the housemother's goal in sending them there was another question, but Kaos decided to not pursue that line of thought).
As they were walking from the café back to the dorm, Kaos heard a high-pitched bark behind her. She turned around and saw a little gold-haired dog with patches of black in its coat running up to her. Its tail was upright. Smiling, Kaos knelt down. The dog stopped right in front of her and perched its front legs on her knees. Kaos scratched its head, and it yipped happily at her, licking at her hand.
"Tora!" someone called. Kaos looked up. A girl was running over to them. She looked as though she might be in middle school, though Kaos reminded herself that looks could be deceiving (she herself was proof of that). The girl was holding what looked like a red leash. Kaos figured this dog was probably hers. The little dog looked back at the girl and then back at Kaos. It leaned forward and licked her face, tickling her. Kaos giggled a little, and the dog wagged its tail even harder.
"Tora!" the girl said again as she caught up to them. She looked down at Kaos. "I'm terribly sorry he's bothering you."
"Ah…it's okay," Kaos said, suddenly feeling nervous. It was much easier to talk with the dog than its owner. She stood up quickly and made a slight bow to the girl. "I'm, uh, I'm sorry…for…um…petting your dog without permission."
"What?" The girl tilted his head. "No, it's alright. Though he doesn't usually like other people that much, especially strangers."
"H-He seems like a very friendly dog to me," Kaos said. The dog continued to jump at her legs, trying to get her attention again. "And his name is Tora, you said?"
"Yes, that's right," the girl said. She looked down at Tora and added "You shouldn't run off like that! You might have scared this little girl and her big sister."
We're not sisters, Kaos thought. Out loud, she said nothing though. This dog was tiny and probably wouldn't scare anyone. It was adorable though.
"Really, it's alright," Ruki said. "She's good with animals."
"She must be," the girl said, smiling at Kaos.
"T-Thanks," Kaos said. "Um…is it okay if I pet him a little more?"
After a few minutes of playing with Taro and petting him some more, Kaos and Ruki said good-bye to him and his owner and turned down the street that led back to the dorms.
"What a cute dog!" Kaos exclaimed.
"Very cute," Ruki said. "I wish I had brought my phone."
"To take a picture of it?"
"To take a picture of you playing with it, Kaos."
Ruki had wanted another picture of her? That was a nice feeling. Kaos, of course, had brought her phone with her. She held it out.
"M-Maybe you and I can take a picture together," she suggested.
"Really?" Ruki's face lit up. "I'd like that."
Kaos pressed up against Ruki, who put her arm around her. She held out her phone in front of her and snapped a picture of the two of them. It turned out perfect. When she showed it to Ruki, she looked delighted.
"I feel like I should get a fancier phone," Ruki said. "Then I could take nice pictures like this. But they seem so complicated."
"It's not so bad, Ruki!" Kaos said. "It just takes a little practice. If you got a newer one, I'd be happy to help you with it."
"Alright, Kaos. I might take you up on that sometime."
Kaos's outing with Ruki turned out to be a boon for her work in more than one way. There was the fact that now she could draw a comic about visiting a little café (along with a character getting an ice-cream headache) but more than that, the feeling she got from spending time alone with Ruki was a wave she felt like she could ride forever.
