It was a mild-weathered day in early November, the leaves on the trees were becoming Brown if they haven't fallen off already. A cool breeze sends a few leaves gliding over the sidewalk outside of the Comic Guild, Parappa Town's little comic book store.
"This is such bullcrap! Have you guys read the first volume of Kintsugi Katana 4?! It's garbage!" Caleb, an overweight raccoon teen, complains as he sits on a bean-bag chair in the corner of the shop.
"What pisses you off today Caleb?" James, a lean human teenager, asks in a dry manor as he rests his head in his palm behind the counter.
James recently got a part-time job working at the Comic Guild, so he and the rest of the school tech club have been using the place as an after-school hangout.
"Oh nothing, just the fact that my favorite manga series is ruined." The raccoon pouts, throwing the book onto the floor.
"Every time something inconveniences you, you say it's ruined." James replies.
"This is different! The Kintsugi Katana series is one of my favorite anime slash manga series of all time! The new edition blatantly takes everything KK3 had and ruins it!" The raccoon pouts in a very disappointed manner.
"Maybe if you didn't have such trash taste, you would have realized Kintsugi Katana has always sucked." Leon grins as he sits on the counter next to James.
"Stay out of this litterbox." Caleb frowns at the feline.
"Wh-what's so bad about it?" Oskar, a green puppet person, asks in his usual timid tone of voice.
"Where do I start? How about how it says that Taro Silver became a cyborg in order to defeat Makoto Gold at his wedding, but canon states that he became a cyborg to avenge his brother! It's so dumb!" Caleb throws his arms up in the air with anger.
"Then just read something else, like Diamond Fashion Forever Z." Leon holds up an issue of his favorite manga.
"For the last time, I'm not reading that shit." The fat raccoon frowns at the purple cat.
"Anime and manga is overrated. I don't see why you just don't read Marble Comics like I do." James suggests.
"Ah yes, Marble and it's stupid storylines and boring, stale characters." Caleb says, rolling his eyes.
"Then make your own manga then, god damn!" James shouts, angry over the constant whining.
As he said that, the raccoon's eyes light up. "Make my own manga...that...that's actually a good idea."
Caleb gets up from his bean bag chair. "If I create my own manga, then that means stupid people won't be able to ruin it! I'll create the masterpiece that I know I could make!"
James, Leon, and Oskar exchange looks to each other as their otaku friend picks up his Die la Die anime themed back-pack.
"Adios! The next time you see me, I'll be the hottest mangaka on the market! Haha!" The big teen scuttles out of the comic book store with pep in his step.
"Uh...did...did anyone else see zat he took a stack of comics with him?" Oskar points out to his friends.
James glances over to the shelf that was next to where Caleb was sitting, seeing almost a whole row of mangas missing. The human exhales through his nose in an irritated fashion, knowing that shit's coming out of his paycheck.
...
It was around dusk at this time, and at the Coonby residence, Caleb was held up in his room scribbling away on his little desk area. The boys' room had multiple anime and manga themed posters hung up around the room, with other merchandise cluttering up almost all the shelf-space in the room.
"C'mon...augh dammit." The raccoon huffs with annoyance as he balls up the paper he was drawing on and blindly attempts to toss it in his little waste-paper basket. He's been at this for some time since the floor around the small trash-bin was littered with paper.
The door to his room opens up, revealing a large adult raccoon who was also overweight. He was wearing a large green collared shirt, and was holding a brown bottle in his hand.
"Caleb, what the hell are you doing?" The man asks the mangaka hard at work.
"Leave me alone Dad I'm busy." Caleb says, continuing to keep at it.
His father scoffs as he shakes his head. "Busy, right. I'm sure you're hard at work their son, being productive for once in your life. Oh wait, that's to good to be true since you're screwing around with your cartoon bullshit."
The teen grumbles under his breath as he doesn't even glance at his father.
"What was that?" The middle-aged raccoon frowns, his voice sounding irritable.
"...nothing." Caleb quietly says.
His Dad scoffs once again as he takes a long sip out of the bottle. He quietly stares at his son for several seconds, making Caleb feel very uncomfortable, but he tries to ignore it. After a little while, Caleb's father speaks.
"I'm going to bed. Don't wake me up." He turns around and proceeds to slam the door. Caleb quits scribbling for a few moments, then without saying a word, he resumes once again.
...
4 A.M. is what the clock read as the aspiring artist kept furiously drawing on the paper. His tongue was sticking out from the side of his mouth as dark bags were visible from under his eyes. He had gone through multiple sheets of paper, but less and less were getting thrown out.
A few minutes pass and Caleb throws his pencil down, feeling as if he just dropped a fifty pound weight. "There...it's finished." Caleb tiredly proclaims, cracking the knuckles of his sore right hand.
The raccoon pulls out his phone, completely ignoring the time and going straight into messenger. The only thing on his mind was sharing the good news with his best friend.
Caleb: dude, i did it man. i freakin did it.
A few minutes pass before he gets a response.
James: Caleb it's 4 in the fucking morning.
Caleb: i don't care man, i did it.
James: Also did you know that you stole $50 worth of manga today. Guess who's paycheck that's coming out of. :(
Caleb: yeah ok but i finished it. i finished my manga!
Another minute goes by before James responds.
James: ...You were actually serious?
Caleb: yeah
James: Well shit :0
Caleb: wanna see the cover?
James: Sure.
The raccoon takes a picture of the cover and sends him it. He responds soon after.
James: Oh wow.
Caleb: it's called Super Senpai Ultimate X. the girl on the cover is the main char., her name is Fumiko Femme and she is an alien from Pluto.
James: Her anatomy sure is something.
Caleb: her duty in life is to protect the other main char., a guy named Cal. who is foretold to be the chosen one.
James: Oh boy.
Caleb: Cal and Fumiko fight robots, and aliens, and zombies, and fry cooks, all kinds of bad guys.
James: That's cool and all but we have to go to school in 2 hours and I need to sleep.
Caleb: i'm not goin to school tomorrow im gonna go door 2 door selling my manga.
James: What the hell who does that?
Caleb: me
James: Dude we have a Geometry exam tomorrow and we got to fix Mr. Johnson's computer.
Caleb: you n Oskar can handle it. next time you see me ill be rolling in bank bby.
James: Whatever you say dude, see you tomorrow.
With that, Caleb puts down his phone and climbs in bed. He hugs his Myuku Ratoi body pillow tightly as he prepares to sleep. He cannot wait to begin a new chapter of his life tomorrow.
...
Knock knock knock
The door opens, revealing an anthropomorphic turkey wearing a brown suit.
"Hello sir, would you be interested in buying the first issue of the hit manga series Super Senpai Ultimate X?" Caleb was dressed up in a big puffy green winter coat, with his backpack slung over his back. Instead of it being filled with important things like school supplies, he has multiple copies of his manga stuff in there.
"Oooooh, well well! It's always refreshing to see today's youth creating literature." The turkey man smiles. "May I examine one of your fine graphic novels, young man?"
Caleb hands the man a copy of the manga. "If ya like what you see, that'll be twenty bucks!"
The turkey flips through the pages, and his goofy smile turns into a confused look. "What's... this doesn't seem quite right...the pages are out of order."
"It's a manga dude, you read it right-to-left."
The turkey's eyes widen in bloodshot horror. "R-right-to-left?! What...what is this sorcery?!"
"Uh..."
The turkey turns to Caleb, his eyes filled with fury as he throws the copy back at him. "Get off my lawn you hooligan! Begone! Gobble gobble gobble!" He furiously gobbles at the portly raccoon, who immediately flees from the property.
...
Knock knock knock
The door to the next house opens, answered by a small elderly canine woman.
"I'm not interested in your religion sonny." She says in a deadpan manner.
"Don't worry ma'am, I got something for you that's better than religion!"
The old woman raises her eyebrow, ever so slightly intrigued.
"...manga!"
With that, she slams the door in Caleb's poor face. The raccoon slumps over in disappointment.
...
Knock knock knock
The door opens up, revealing it to be none other than Papa Rappa. He stares at Caleb's forced smile for a few moments, feeling uncomfortable.
"Uh...can I help you son?"
Caleb slowly raises a copy of his manga, wiggling it right in front of the very confused canine.
"Manga. Twenty dollars." Caleb states, flashing off the manga as if were a stack of dollar bills.
Papa Rappa cautiously looks around the area behind the raccoon, making sure this isn't some weird attempt at a home invasion.
"Shouldn't you be in school son?"
"Pffft. Who needs school when I'm an aspiring artist!" Caleb folds his arms with a roll of his eyes.
"Good lord..." Papa scratches the back of his neck, feeling sorry for this troubled youth.
Suddenly, a middle-aged onion in an old karate uniform barges his way next to the dog.
"What's going on? Is it another girl scout selling cookies? Can you buy me some cookies?" Chop Chop Master Onion shoots a look at the hat-wearing dog.
"No! And he's not even selling cookies, he's selling mangoes, or whatever he called it." Papa explains to the onion.
"What?" Chop Chop raises his eyebrow.
"For the love of- not mangoes you pleb. Manga." Caleb frowns at the canine's ignorance of the subject.
Chop Chop's eyes narrow at the raccoon teenager. "Mangaka...you people are in this country too?!" The karate teachers quickly turns around and runs back inside the house.
"Get away from him Mr. Rappa, he is dangerous!" Chop Chop yells from inside the house.
"What are you talking ab-"
Before Papa Rappa could finish, Master Onion returns with a broom, running right at Caleb with it.
"HIIIIIYATATATATAAAA!" He shouts as he swings at the frightened raccoon, who once again runs away.
The chubby raccoon scrambles away as Papa Rappa tries his hardest to restrain Chop Chop from chasing him down the street.
...
Caleb walks down the sidewalk of main street, a little tear in his eye as he solemnly looks at a copy of his story.
"Wh-why doesn't a-anybody want to b-buy my manga..." Caleb sniffles.
As the poor raccoon walked past an alleyway, he hears rummaging coming from one of the dumpsters. For some odd reason, Caleb decides to investigate.
Upon walking up to the dumpster, he sees a man digging through it. Mumbling to himself in an almost crazed manner.
"Uh...hello?" Caleb cautiously speaks up.
The man in the dumpster turns around to look at him, revealing to be a big deer with pointy antlers and a scruffy beard. It was good ol' Ho-Beau.
The raccoon and the deer stare at each other for a few awkward moments before the deer breaks the silence.
"...what?"
"Do you...do you want a manga?" Caleb sniffles as he shows him the copy in his hands.
"Is it...is it drugs?" The old dirty deer asks the teen.
"No...it's a comic."
"Eh, sorry kid, I can't read to well. Come back when you got drugs." With that, Ho-Beau returns to dumpster diving.
"Wait, I'll get you drugs if you buy it." Caleb says, but falls on deaf ears. The raccoon sighs and walks away in sadness.
...
A several hours pass as it was late in the afternoon, and it was normal as usual at the Comic Guild.
"So anyway, the guy tells me he's a model for Stunning Style magazine, and he gives me his number. He told me I have what it takes to become the next top male motel~ So expect to see me on the covers of magazines in the coming months." Leon happily explains to James in Oskar in his usual artful tone.
"Leon why do you need to always lie." James deadpanned as he calls him out.
Before Leon could come up with a retort, Caleb barges into the shop.
"I hope you're all happy!" Caleb grumpily shouts as he slumps down in his beanbag chair, pouting.
"Who spit in your cereal darling?" Leon smirks at Caleb's attitude.
"God did." The raccoon simple said as he pouts again.
"Sell any of your mangas?" James asks nonchalantly.
"No. Nobody in this town cares about culture." Caleb looks cross as he stares at the floor.
"Nobody wants to deal with a door-to-door manga salesman. You could have saved yourself the trouble and just tried to sell it here." James explains.
Caleb quickly turns towards him. "Are you telling me I could have done that from the start?"
"You'll have to talk with the boss about it, but I wouldn't see why he wouldn't let you sell it, as long as the store got half the profits."
"Shit that's fine with me! Be thankful that this place will be booming with business once these fly off the shelves!" Caleb's mood changes back for the better.
"Just know that half of what you make goes to me since you still stole a bunch of comics." James says in a serious tone.
"10%." Caleb haggles.
James puts his arm around Caleb's shoulder, a calm but intimidating look present on his face.
"Half."
"O-okay half." Caleb steps back, not wanting to piss James off more.
The door bell jingles as Ho-Beau steps inside the store, causing all four boys to look towards him.
"Hey kid uh... does...does your offer still stand?"