Full-time cartoonist

Higashino Hibiki met Yamazaki Akira. Under the camera and spotlight, he was unexpectedly calm.

"Hello, Master Yamazaki, long time no see."

She smiled. In the past few months, she had been working hard to run TV programs, and it was indeed a long time since she came to Higashino Hibiki.

"Hello, long time no see." She said sheepishly.

After setting up the chessboard, Higashino pointed to the opposite side and asked Akira Yamazaki to sit down.

"What are the rules?" Yamazaki asked.

"Must go first," Higashino Hibiki replied, "Heizi sticks to 5 and a half eyes."

This is a fair move. Black moves first and moves close to make up for White's disadvantage.

Yamazaki Akira glanced at the camera and bowed, "Please give me your advice."

"Please give me your advice."

When the match started, Higashino Hibiki said: "We have played Go several times, or in other words, my enlightenment in Go was Yamazaki Akira 2nd Dan. I have never won once. This time, I want to try to see if I can win."

Yamazaki Akira curled his lips, clearly not believing it.

But after looking at Higashino Hibiki's serious expression, he felt a little flustered.

She gathered her thoughts and focused her mind on the chessboard.

After each other, Higashino Hibiki took the lead in black.

In order to draw comics, he fully studied Shutaku-ryu and used it subconsciously.

The opening layout is a combination of modern Go and show style.

As the chess game progressed, both sides went back and forth, with no one taking the lead.

Yamazaki Akira looked at Kuroko and was very surprised.

Although Higashino Hibiki's previous chess moves always had exquisite moves, in her opinion, the layout had many loopholes.

It's easy to gain the upper hand.

But now, his chess moves are steady and steady. Facing his own attack, he showed no embarrassment at all.

If she didn't know it was a cartoonist, she would have thought it was a professional chess player.

"It's really difficult to deal with."

Holding the fan, she shook her head. But he didn't notice that they were all caught on camera.

She tried setting a trap, but the other party seemed to have noticed them all and evaded them.

"This kid is really difficult to deal with. I can't find any flaws in him."

"Could it be that he also has a thousand-year soul in his body, and is he Hikaru Kondo in the manga?"

Yamazaki Akira frowned, and after being distracted, he played a move of chess.

The chess piece had just fallen, and she was shocked inside.

"Wrong move!"

He immediately looked at the other party, and sure enough, Higashikata laughed.

Yamazaki Akira's mistake was very serious. He was sure that he had won the game.

One move of chess immediately led to a place Yamazaki Akira didn't want to face.

After playing a few more moves, Yamazaki Akira could no longer make up for the disadvantage because of that bad move, so he could only try his best to play.

After the finale.

Counting the chess pieces, she lost.

"I lost..." She lowered her head.

He actually lost to a person who had never studied Go systematically.

She now regrets extremely that she gave up studying Go for the sake of the TV show.

"It's hard to believe," the female reporter came over, "it was Mr. Tori Akino who actually won."

A cartoonist beat a professional player at Go.

After the shock, I felt happy. It was already full of gimmicks, but now it is even more popular.

Shock! Mirai Tori Akino, the author of "The Soul of Chess", vs. Akira Yamazaki, the second-dan professional chess player, the result is incredible to me!

Simply, she came up with a usable title.

No! There is no need to do this to attract readers. As long as the results are reported honestly, it will become an issue with high ratings.

I suppressed my inner excitement and started today’s interview.

…

After the game, the program team filmed Hibiki Higashino's studio.

There are his drafts and original manuscripts in it.

"It's amazing", "The painting is really good", the reporter couldn't stop sighing with emotion.

Female reporter: It’s much more exquisite than the picture on Jump.

Hibiki Higashino: Yes, this is to reduce costs. After all, a jump is only 230 yen.

She then pointed at the colored manuscripts and the original manuscripts with exciting content, which made Hibiki's mouth dry when he talked about it, so the female reporter let Hibiki go.

A formal interview followed.

Female reporter: Excuse me, why did you think of drawing comics?

Tori Akino: I accidentally saw the prize money for the Manga Grand Prize, which was 500,000 yen. This attracted me very much.

Female reporter: So what’s the result?

Tori Akino: Not shortlisted.

Female reporter: That’s such a pity. It turns out that a talented cartoonist like you can also fail. Have you ever realized the difficulty of being a cartoonist?

Tori Akino: No, because for the second submission, I chose the "Tezuka Award", which has a higher prize of 1 million yen. It was easy to get selected.

Female reporter:......

Female reporter: What is the key to your progress?

Tori Akino: There is no key. It's just that the editor was partial and helped me work as an assistant to Mr. Akira Toriyama, so I made progress.

Female reporter...

She coughed twice, smiled awkwardly, and then continued to ask after feeling relieved.

Female reporter: Why did you think of drawing comics about Go?

Hibiki Higashino: When I was looking for a place, a big brother helped me and gave me directions. I saw him enter the Go club. He is tall and thick, but he never expected to be able to play Go. This left a deep impression on my mind, and I was inspired.

The female reporter breathed a sigh of relief and finally felt normal.

Female reporter: That is indeed a warm-hearted and kind-hearted person. Thank you for his contribution to Go. Maybe he will also see our program. Is there anything you want to say to him?

Tori Akino: Thank you, Uncle Xiaochun. Come on for this year’s professional Go exam.

Female reporter: It’s really amazing to prepare to take the professional chess player exam.

Tori Akino: Yes, I lost to him the last time I played chess.

Yamazaki Akira wanted to cry but had no tears when he heard this. All the strength of his professional chess player was gone. T_T

Afterwards, the reporter discussed the plot of "Soul of the Game" with Hibiki Higashikata.

Female reporter: The content of the previous chapters revealed that Fujiwara Sae will become a Buddha. Will he draw like this?

Tori Akino: The subsequent development is all in my mind, but I can’t spoil it now. What I draw is the most suitable content.

Female reporter: That’s very good, but it’s equivalent to not saying anything at all.

Tori Akino: Haha.

Female reporter: Regarding your other comic, "The Garden of Words", it is about the love between teachers and students. What do you think of this?

Tori Akino: I just think that love, when the mind is sound, should not be limited by age. The relationship between teachers and students is naturally one of superiority and inferiority, and it is easy to be forced. So I think the current public opinion is very good.

Female reporter: Thank you very much for your answer.

The interview lasted for an hour intermittently. The topics of the questions were given to Hibiki Higashino in advance and he was asked to delete some questions that were inconvenient to answer.

So these questions are acceptable.

After refusing the dinner party, Yamazaki Akira had not left until they evacuated.

She was a little unwilling and asked Hibiki to play two more rounds.

After the 1:1 draw, Hibiki Higashino went to draw comics.

Akira Yamazaki sat quietly and recognized the reality.

…

June 3rd.

Sales of "Weekly Shonen Jump" dropped to 5.8 million.

But within half a month, it was already 700,000 less.

This unimaginable number made everyone in the editorial department fall silent and stared at the report in confusion.

Horie Nobuhiko's eyes have been red recently.

But there is no other way but to maintain as much as possible and wait for the savior.

"Wait a minute," Nobuhiko Horie looked at the data and suddenly said, "What's going on with the plot of "Soul of the Game"? I've received a lot of calls about it today, right?"

Sasaki replied: "It's about Fujiwara Sawei. Tori Akino is planning to make this character become a Buddha in the future."

"Fujiwara Sawei!" Horie Nobuhiko slapped the table and stood up, "Isn't this character the most popular character in "Soul of the Game"! How can we let him finish it!"

Sasaki's expression did not change. He adjusted his glasses, "Because according to the tone of the story, when the protagonist grows up, there is no need for the role of Fujiwara Sae."

"And the initial foreshadowing of the story revolves around Zuo Wei's mission. Once he finds the meaning of his existence, he should naturally disappear."

Nobuhiko Horie was helpless, "Is the performance or the story more important?"

"From Tori Akino-sensei's point of view, storytelling is more important," Sasaki replied.

Regarding this point, he and Hibiki Hibiki discussed this for a long time and knew Hibiki Hibiki's true thoughts.

So I decided to let him continue painting like this.

For the future of this cartoonist, temporary achievements are nothing.

"Tori Akino has not yet grown into a pillar of Jump," Sasaki said, "so I think there is nothing wrong with sacrificing temporary results that will help him grow, so I didn't report it."

"But today," Horie Nobuhiko said: ""Spirit of the Game" is already a manga on par with "Rurouni Kenshin", how could he be allowed to draw it like this?"

"With all due respect, Editor-in-Chief," Sasaki said, neither humble nor condescending, "because the editorial department interfered too seriously with the cartoonists, that's why Toriyama Akira-sensei didn't plan to serialize it for a long time today, and Togashi-sensei made a botched response. They are very considerate of the editorial department. There are complaints.”

"I think their thoughts should be taken into consideration rather than denied."

"Moreover, maybe, after injecting enough emotion into "Soul of Chess", the results will actually improve."

Horie Nobuhiko nodded thoughtfully.

Cartoonists are very stubborn, and the recent performance of "Chess Soul" has not declined.

He decided to wait a little longer.

The main reason is that he is not in the mood to argue with Hibiki Higashikata right now.

He waved his hand and asked Sasaki to leave.

After Sasaki left, he did not return to his work station to continue working. Instead, he went to the corner and called Hibiki Hibiki.

Of course it's not about taking credit, it's about something else.

The results of the second volume of "The Soul of Chess".

"It has just exceeded 800,000 copies. It may eventually be around 900,000 copies."

Regarding the negative impact brought about by the end of "Dragon Ball", Hibiki Higashino feels it.

The first volume already has 1.1 million copies, which is a decrease of 200,000 copies.

A copy of Hibiki Higashino earns 40 yen, which is 8 million yen!

This is just one volume, and subsequent single volumes will definitely have an impact.

Dong Yexiang suddenly became disappointed.

"My money!"