His First Sale
Cast:
Ban Kenji - Cure Blossom's friend - age 15
Kise Yayoi - age 14
August, 2011
Dogwood Flowers is a one-man circle. Kenji received help with drawing and publishing as he prepared to table at a major doujinshi event, and already repaid his helpers by doing them a favor in turn. Even in such an exchange, however, he would not - could not! - ask the girls from the Myoudou Academy Fashion Club to assist him at such a notoriously hot and overcrowded marketplace.
A man has to be responsible for his own passions.
"Aren't you hot?"
The person who asks this is a blonde girl, close to Kenji's age. Like others before her, she is talking about his outfit, the Fashion Club's strange foray into menswear. It consists mainly of a heavy black coat, patterned after the fashion of a delinquent character from the 90s. Multiple belts, most of them unnecessary. Iridescent threads are woven into the exterior so that it sparkles when the light hits it right. The front half only of a military-styled cap.
"Very hot," he admits. "But a man has to be responsible for his passions."
The girl's face turns red. She shyly seeks cover, and finds it by opening one of Kenji's doujinshi. She presses her face close to it, at first to hide, then with increasing interest as she flips rapidly through the pages.
She is the first person to read more than a few pages.
"Are you some kind of genius?" Embarrassment forgotten, she asks with sparkling eyes. "Magical girls! Giant robots! Two awesome things that are more awesome together! How did you come up with this?"
Kenji shrugs. "It's my personal preference."
"I'll take it! I'll take two!" The girl shouts, dropping the money into Kenji's hand as she pockets two copies, his first ever sale. "And- And..."
Her face reddens again as she thrusts a bottled water into Kenji's hands.
"...in case you get too hot."