Tokyo life starting with painting

As an editor who has worked in a publishing house for nearly two years, Hosokawa Koharu has of course experienced working overtime from time to time.

For example, if the author is temporarily unable to submit the manuscript, he has to find a replacement work, including the already designed catalog and cover, which must be redone. These things are definitely not uncommon.

After all, Japanese publishing houses do have great privileges for authors.

In other words, it is relatively common for authors to work overtime because they are short of manuscripts.

But it was indeed the first time for Hosokawa Koharu to work overtime for simple form statistics like this.

But this time the overtime is meaningful.

After all, we need to make a horizontal comparison between the results of "Heshi" and "Chiyo".

And the consequences of this overtime work are

Hosokawa Koharu rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up from his desk. At the same time, he did not forget to pick up the tooth cup, toothbrush and other things.

Because she often works overtime, she also prepared a set of dental kits at the publishing house.

She walked to the toilet, brushed her teeth and washed briefly, then bought a can of coffee and walked to her desk while rubbing her slightly swollen face.

Today was the day to announce the number of positive votes and support from readers, so she had to try her best no matter what.

"The data department sent the form. It should be at eight o'clock, right?"

Hosokawa Koharu opened the computer in front of him, held the coffee can, and glanced at the time.

It's only seven o'clock now, and there is still one hour before the data is released.

"Well, I don't know what Mr. Higashino's grades will be this time."

The first thing that can be confirmed is that this time Higashinoji’s work “Hansawa Naoki” will definitely not be poorly received by readers.

After all, it already caused a certain amount of discussion yesterday, which is enough to show that his new work is very popular among readers.

The key is the degree of popularity.

"If Teacher Higashino was here, what grade would he predict for me?"

Hosokawa Koharu couldn't help but put his thoughts into Higashinoji's mind.

If it was Higashinoji, he must be extremely confident, and he would definitely get more than 800 positive votes when he opens his mouth, right?

Thinking of this, Hosokawa Koharu couldn't help laughing.

Indeed, for someone like Higashinoji who has confidence in his own work, his evaluation of "Naoki Hansawa" will definitely not be less than 800 votes.

So what will be the actual result?

Hosokawa Koharu couldn't help but continue thinking.

In the process, the editors who worked overtime last night also woke up one after another.

Some people went directly downstairs to find a convenience store to buy something to satisfy their hunger, while others, like Hosokawa Koharu, stayed in front of the computer screen with serious faces.

The next statistical table is something that the entire Tomishima editorial department is paying attention to.

Not even the entire Tomishima editorial staff.

Even some manga authors from the old Fuji Publishing House and the old Urashima Publishing House are very concerned about today's statistical results.

Hojo Nagayasu, who had some disagreements with Suzuki Ha before, is one of them. This time he met with another manga author from the old Urashima Publishing House.

The manga author’s name is Hisaku Ueda.

Unlike Hojo Nagayasu, Ueda Hisaku didn't really care that much about Higashinoji's cover squeezing out the introduction of his works.

"Huh? Ueda-sensei doesn't care at all?"

Hojo Nagayasu looked a little surprised when he heard Ueda Kusaku's words.

He originally thought that there would be someone among the manga authors from the old Urashima Publishing House who had the same idea as him.

In the end, Hisaku Ueda didn't care at all?

"Teacher Hojo, you haven't serialized it in Urashima Publishing House, so you don't know."

Compared to Hojo Nagayasu's surprise, Ueda Kusaku's performance seemed calm and calm.

"Is there any inside story here?"

Seeing how he was lighting up his cigarette calmly, Hojo Nagayasu couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

"There's no inside story. It's just Mr. Hojo, you haven't experienced that feeling."

Ueda Kusaku's eyes were like a dead fish.

His appearance made Hojo Changyasu even more confused: "What does it feel like?"

Listening to Hojo Nagayasu's question, Ueda Kusaku couldn't help but sigh and slowly explained:

"It's that feeling. No matter how hard you draw comics and how much you practice to strengthen your shortcomings, you just can't catch up with Mr. Higashino."

Well.

Listening to Ueda Kusaku's self-defeating speech as if he had been held down and beaten for centuries by Higashinoji, Hojo Nagayasu was stunned on the spot.

He had heard of Ueda Hisaku's name before when he was working at Fuji Publishing House.

In my impression, the other person should be a comic book author with a very hot temper.

Why is it that now that we have actually met, he doesn't have the bad temper as rumored, but instead looks half-dead, and has a feeling of doubting his life?

Hojo Changyasu didn't understand at all and could only touch his head.

"Give up, Hojo-sensei."

It seemed that he understood why Hojo Nagayasu asked him to come out to meet him this time.

Ueda Kusaku said with a distant look: "I used to be like you, young and not very sensible. I thought that if I had a little talent in comics, I would be invincible. But since Mr. Higashino officially came to "Abominable Cold"."

When he said this, Ueda Hisaku's tone paused, and a particularly frightened expression appeared on his face:

"What you don't understand, Mr. Hojo, is that no matter how hard you try, or what kind of publicity resources you get, Higashino Tsukasa's works will always be at the top of readers' praise lists for their horror."

Well.

Looking at Ueda Kusaku's expression, Hojo Nagayasu had no idea what this manga author, who was known for his 'violent temper', had experienced under Higashino Tsukasa.

But before Hisaku Ueda finished speaking, his expression became even more excited.

"Teacher Hojo, think about it, no matter the spring, summer, autumn or winter, or whether you are serializing or not, the number one name in "Abominable Cold" will always be one person, a name that will remain unchanged for thousands of years. Higashinoji, especially you. Do you know how big the difference in votes is?”

Ueda swallowed hard and stretched out his finger: "My best score was 351 votes from readers, which means this best score is more than 400 votes short of Mr. Higashino's."

What is despair?

This is called despair.

Their votes are more than twice yours.

"It's not that I don't want to work hard! It's just that hard work is useless! What's the use of hard work!"

Ueda Kusaku covered his face, feeling like he was being tortured by Higashinoji.

"But... Ueda-sensei, aren't Higashino-sensei's works all novellas or short stories? You can always get first place during the break after he finishes, right?"

Hojo Nagayasu had never experienced the feeling of being dominated by Higashinoji, so he asked.

"Finished.? Finished may make me happy for a while, but Mr. Higashino's apprentice, Mr. Kuromiya, will take advantage of the opportunity to dominate the rankings. I have no chance at all."

Ueda Kusaku stood up in confusion, his face was like a dead fish, and he seemed to have "already figured it out":

"So Mr. Hojo, please figure it out quickly and stop struggling."

He even persuaded Hojo Changyasu next to him to become a salted fish.

This was completely unacceptable to Hojo Nagayasu: "I won't be like you, Mr. Ueda!"

Hojo Nagayasu patted his chest hard: "Maybe there is a gap between me and Mr. Higashino, but that gap can definitely be filled with my efforts! We can't have so many negative emotions! Mr. Ueda!"

"Believe us, we will definitely surpass Mr. Higashino! No matter how powerful he is, he is just one person!"

He was cheering Ueda Kusaku on the side. If it were ordinary comics, animation, or Japanese dramas, Ueda Kusaku might have been excited by what he said.

But unfortunately, as the active comic book author of "Abominable Cold" who has been tortured by Higashinoji for two years, he no longer has the spirit of "Okay, let's rush and defeat Higashinoji" before.

Ueda Kusaku just looked at Hojo Nagayasu helplessly and murmured to himself: "It's useless. It's useless no matter what you do. As long as the readers' positive reviews are counted, Mr. Hojo, you will know what despair is."

"How can it be!"

Hojo Nagayasu was obviously excited by what he said. He felt that he was still younger and older than Higashinoji. Although he was more experienced than Higashinoji, he still had a lot of time to surpass Higashinoji, so for him, this stock , he still has great confidence.

"Then let's wait for the readership statistics announcement at eight o'clock."

Ueda Kusaku stopped talking and just started eating.

Hojo Nagayasu did not continue.

He felt that instead of talking nonsense here, it would be better to show the result to Ueda Kusaku.

It is precisely in this situation that both the editor and the author are paying close attention to the statistics of the praise rate.

The time of eight o'clock also arrived on time.

"The statistics are out! Let me issue an order to everyone now!"

The administrative staff member holding a large stack of forms spoke.

But before he could finish speaking, the printed materials in his hand were already taken away by a bunch of editors one by one and one by one by me.

Yes.

It's really a flash of light.

It can also be seen from here how long the editor of Tomima Publishing House waited.

They flipped through the form, and then—

At a glance, I saw "Naoki Hansawa" ranked first.

"As expected, "Naoki Hansawa" is indeed number one."

This ranking is very normal, and none of the editors are surprised. After all, the popularity of "Naoki Hansawa" was already amazing yesterday.

"Let me see the number of positive votes for "Naoki Hansawa" is... uh."

The editor who muttered to himself couldn't help but wipe his eyes. Then he looked at the other editors, a little surprised: "Is there a data error in my printed information?"

"Ah? What a coincidence. I also think I made a mistake, otherwise how could it be possible?"

"The same to you?"

"No way?"

In this situation the editors looked at each other in disbelief.

Hosokawa Koharu saw the number of favorable readers' votes for "Naoki Hansawa" at a glance.

"Naoki Hansawa" ranked first in the readers' survey, with 865 votes.

“865???”

Looking at this terrifying number, Hosokawa Koharu couldn't help but open his mouth.

"Naoki Hansawa" ranked first with 865 votes.

It surpassed the 503 votes of the second place Akisa Kuromiya's "The Island of Evil" by a full 362 votes?

this.?

Isn't this too scary?

"Naoki Hansawa" really has the word "invincible" written directly on his face?

Who can compete with "Naoki Hansawa"?

Whether it's all the manga works of "Heshi" or all the manga works of "Chiyo".

These more than 40 comic works.

I guess even one of them can't take the punch of "Naoki Hansawa", right?

"This is terrible," several editors from the old Fuji Publishing House murmured to themselves.

When I was working at Fuji Publishing, was this the kind of monster I fought against?

Aren’t we looking for death ourselves?

Can you pick out a piece that fights a monster with 865 votes?

They looked at each other, wanting to speak, but they didn't know what words to use to describe the emotions in their hearts.

But soon an editor shook his head and continued reading.

After all, this is the number of positive votes from readers. The next step is the number of votes for the protagonist’s support rate.

Then

The names of Hanzawa Naoki and Hanzawa Hana were directly on the top of the list, with 854 votes for Hanzawa Naoki and 697 votes for Hanzawa Hana.

The first place in the double list was firmly won.

When they looked further down, they found that most of them were characters from the comic works of "Chiyo" published by New Iwazuki Publishing House. Only characters from the works of Akisa Kuromiya and Ha Suzuki made it into the top ten.

Tomishima Publishing House really defeated the comic magazine "Chiyo" next door with just one work, "Naoki Hansawa".

This result not only made this group of editors feel lucky, but also made them feel full of crisis.

The overall quality of "Heshi" is indeed not as good as the "Chiyo" next door.

However, this time "Hansawa Naoki" won the first place, we can't say that they lost, it can only be said that they were 50-50 with the opponent - "Hansawa Naoki" accounted for at least 4.50% of the 50-50.

Now that the readers’ positive votes have been tallied, the next step is of course to notify the author.

As for Hojo Nagayasu and Ueda Hisaku who were serialized in "Hese", they were the ones who were notified.

Hojo Nagayasu, who had been waiting in the cafe for a long time, finally received a call from the editor.

His mood suddenly became excited, and at the same time he showed it to Ueda Kusaku on the other side: "Teacher Ueda, I will turn on the hands-free right now, let's work hard together!"

"." Hisaku Ueda.

His editor hasn't called yet, so he probably went to notify others.

But he actually didn't care.

Anyway, the first place must be Higashinoji.

With this in mind, Ueda Kusaku pinched the handle of the coffee cup and glanced at Hojo Nagayasu again, indicating that he could answer the phone.

"Okay." Hojo Nagayasu pressed the connect button on his phone.

Then

"Mr. Hojo, your work ranked seventh in the reader survey this time, with 260 votes. The situation is not bad. Please keep it up."

260 votes.

This result is indeed pretty good. After all, "Heshi" is no longer serialized by Fuji Publishing House than before. This magazine contains high-quality works.

But Hojo Nagayasu wasn't very satisfied. The most important thing was that he hadn't heard about Higashinoji's results yet.

So before the editor wanted to hang up the phone, Hojo Nagayasu took the initiative to stop and asked: "How is Mr. Higashino's reader survey? Is it number one?"

"Huh? Oh, Mr. Higashino's "Naoki Hansawa" is indeed number one."

The editor over there carefully considered his words to answer.

"I would like to ask how many votes Mr. Higashino received?"

Hojo Nagayasu had already prepared for the first place result against Higashino Division, so it was not a big surprise.

More than that, he wanted to know how many votes Higashinoji had.

As long as we know Higashinoji's votes, it doesn't matter what the result is.

he! Hojo Changyasu, both can accept it happily!

"Ah? The number of votes. This is information about other authors, okay, if you want to know, Mr. Hojo."

The editor there originally wanted to decline a bit, but couldn't resist Hojo Nagayasu, so he relented.

"Teacher Higashino's "Naoki Hansawa" received 865 positive votes."

"865?!!!"

Hojo Changyasu opened his mouth wide and his eyes almost bulged out.

He now has one sentence written all over his face——

I can not accept.