The New Manga Artist’s Independence, and the Subsequent Fallout

Manga artist Kaiko Mikuniyama woke up on January 25 with an acute sense of dread.

Volume 5 of All About My Little Sister had been on sale for a week, and today, the collected Volume 1 of her comic adaptation of All About—printed monthly in Comic Gifted magazine—was hitting the shelves. This was the first professional release of Kaiko’s life, and while she was overjoyed to see her manga being published in a professional magazine, having her name printed on a paperback volume version hit even harder.

This was common knowledge to some extent, but the amount of money manga artists made from magazine publications was woefully insignificant. When you factored in the cost of hiring assistants and purchasing art tools, you could even wind up in the red. Only when they produced enough chapters to get a collected volume on the market could an artist earn a decent living from their work, in the form of book royalties.

Kaiko had already received some sample copies in the mail a few days back. She couldn’t help but warmly hug one of them. This book was in stores across the country, available to readers, and that meant—in a tangible way—she felt like a professional manga artist.

Drawing the chapters, crafting an extra manga for the anime website, and studying for her junior college finals all kept her so busy that she thought her head would explode. But she had done everything she could for this book. She was confident the cover art was the best her talent could produce at the moment; she had drawn over twenty extra pages of bonus manga for it, and there were hundreds of changes, large and small, that were made to the original magazine-published chapters. She even gave her all to the extra illustrations provided to the otaku-goods store chains, never compromising on any of them. In short, this book personified her, containing everything that defined her life right now.

Since it was being released alongside the anime announcement, there was an ad campaign for both the books and the manga, and Gift Publishing had ordered a pretty large print run by debut-artist standards. Everything had been done right. Now she just had to pray for karma to go her way.

“Whewwwwwww…”

Kaiko placed the book on her desk, solemnly strapping her preferred pair of panties on her head. She had a mission—to produce a chapter for next month’s issue of Comic Gifted—and Kaiko Mikuniyama was ready to press forward. She was willing to do anything to become the best panties-oriented manga artist in the land.

It was a week later when Kohei Tokuyama, her editor, called to inform her that Gift Publishing had ordered an emergency second printing.

Ever since chapter 1 was published in Comic Gifted, it had been known among a subset of manga fans that the comic version of All About was extremely high-quality—but now that the full volume was out, the news was spreading far and wide. People unfamiliar with the original novels were buying it, and (as Tokuyama put it) if this kept up, the manga could even outsell the main series.

“So congratulations, Ms. Mikuniyama…! The manga’s a big hit!” Tokuyama sounded a bit nasal over the phone, as if he was holding back tears.

“Thank you very much. I really appreciate this…!”

Kaiko teared up as well, bowing to her editor despite being on the phone. When she hung up, her eyes were filled with the flames of resolve. It was time to go through with something she had been thinking about for a while now.

“Mother, Father, I need to talk about something.”

After dinner that night, Kaiko struck up a conversation with her parents, who were watching TV in the living room. Her father had a stern face and was set in his ways as many craftsmen are, while her mother, with her gentle smile, looked like an older version of Kaiko in Japanese garb.

When Kaiko first told them she wanted to enter manga, they were dead-set against it; she secretly brought her manga to publishers anyway, eventually scoring a regular gig. But then they sent a free copy of Comic Gifted to her house—addressed to her pen name of Kaiko Mikuniyama, a combination of the word for “silkworm” and her mother’s maiden name. This drove her mother to open the envelope, of course, and that’s how they found out. Her father then flew into a rage at the publisher, attempting to force Kaiko out of the manga business; he relented only when Kaiko gave him an emotional, motivating view into her personal dreams.

Her mother had come to accept it as well, and now they were two of her biggest supporters—cooking dinner, giving her a lift when she was late for a meeting, even passing out copies of Comic Gifted to the neighbors and asking them to hype up Kaiko in the reader feedback cards.

She truly appreciated everything her parents did for her. But:

“…Mother, Father…”

She drummed up her willpower.

“I’m thinking about going to Tokyo.”

“Oh? When? I could take you to the station tomorrow.”

“Try not to come back too late, okay?”

Her parents seemed completely unfazed.

“Huh? …Oh.” Kaiko realized she hadn’t gotten her point across. She hesitated. “N-no, I don’t mean like that! I want to rent a place to live in Tokyo!”

That startled her parents.

…She had been considering it for a while. Going from her place in Gunma Prefecture to Gift Publishing HQ in Tokyo took two hours one way, plus an extra half hour or so getting to the station and waiting to transfer trains. She and her editor could use Skype or the telephone for simple discussions, but they still had to meet face-to-face and go over pages together on a regular basis, and that meant spending five hours out of the day in transit—a physically and mentally draining experience.

Besides, being in Tokyo would make finding assistants a lot easier. Kaiko was currently producing all her work solo—she worked fast, as manga artists go, and she only produced one chapter a month (and nothing extra for Comiket or other doujin events), so she was managing the workload well enough. But someday, she wanted to launch her own panty-oriented manga to run alongside the All About adaptation. That would definitely require some help. Plus, she also wanted to do assistant work at other manga artists’ studios as a learning experience. Tokuyama had linked her to an artist who needed assistance once, but because they lived so far away from each other, she was forced her to turn it down.

If she wanted to spread her wings as an artist and become a first-class panty manga author—a panty manga sensei, if you will—she had to move to Tokyo. And this second printing just when she was about to graduate seemed suspiciously like fate pushing her forward.

But…

“No! I refuse to let you live alone in Tokyo!”

Kaiko earnestly explained the need to move, passionately describing how now was the time to do it, but her parents shot her down.

“Besides, how can a sheltered child like you live by herself?” her father countered.

“I’ve been preparing for this! I can cook and clean for myself well enough!”

“Oh, so that’s why you’ve been so eager to help with chores lately?” Her mother seemed surprised.

“But everything’s so expensive in Tokyo!” her father exclaimed.

“I’ve saved most of the money I made so far. If you factor in the royalties I’m entitled to, I could live for the next year with zero income.”

“It’s not about the money!!”

“But Father, you just said everything’s so expensive…”

Kaiko scowled at her father’s unfair logic, and he reared back a moment.

“I… Well, it’s dangerous in Tokyo! There are punks prowling around at night! Molesters!”

“Well, if I find a place close to the office building, I won’t have to walk around late at night or be on trains by myself as much. Besides, we’ve got biker gangs to worry about up here; there are dropouts hanging out in front of the convenience stores… If anything, things are more lawless around here, aren’t they? Plus, sometimes we get wild boars coming down from the mountains.”

“That just shows how close we are to nature here! Those delinquents and biker gangs are like wild monkeys, all right?!”

“I think that’s a bit of a stretch, dear…”

It was Kaiko’s mother who brought him back down to earth—she was starting to see the other side of the story.

“…I’m just worried about our precious daughter leaving home to live by herself somewhere far away. Can’t you understand how I feel?”

Now she was making an appeal to her emotions. Kaiko found that unfair. She knew perfectly well how much they truly loved her, and they were just as precious to her. If they held her feelings hostage like that, Kaiko would have nothing to counter with.

Tears began to form in her eyes, but she held them back. If she cried right now, it would make her parents think See? We could never let you live alone. Now was not the time. She had to think, and think hard, about what she could do for her dreams…

“……Well, if I don’t live alone, will that work?”

“Pardon me?” her puzzled mother asked.

“If I share an apartment with someone I can trust instead of living alone, will you let me move to Tokyo?”

“Mmmh…”

Kaiko’s parents both hemmed and hawed.

“That’ll cut the number of chores to do by half. We’d be able to live in a better neighborhood, in a building with security and stuff. I’ll stay in contact with you, of course, and I can come back home once a month. What do you think?”

“Mmmmmmh…”

Her father was still in murmuring mode.

“That would cut my worries down a lot,” her mother admitted. “But, Kinue, do you have a friend you can trust enough to live with? I can’t let you live with a total stranger, and I certainly won’t allow a man in your apartment.”

“W-well…”

Kaiko paused for a moment. All her junior college friends had already found jobs at local firms or government agencies; none of them were planning a Tokyo move.

But:

“I—I do! Someone I can really trust!”

“…Well, if you can contact her and she agrees to be roommates with you, we can discuss it then.”

“All right!”

With that, Kaiko went back to her room and called the girl she had in mind.

“Hello, Myaa? I want you to live with me, please!”

The first words out of her mouth over the phone only confused Miyako Shirakawa. “Huh?”

“That’s hard to answer out of nowhere,” a bewildered Miyako replied, but after about three minutes of Kaiko pleading with her, claiming she had no one else to turn to:

“…Well, let me ask my parents.”

Half an hour later, Miyako called Kaiko back.

“They said okay.”

“Oh, that’s great! Your parents are so understanding, Myaa!”

…So understanding that it honestly worried Kaiko, in fact, despite her doing the asking.

“Um, but wow, they sure said yes fast, didn’t they?”

“Well, I’ve been working a lot of late nights in the editorial department, so it was like, why don’t I find someplace closer to come home to? It’d kind of be training for when I’m out of college and living on my own.”

“………”

Miyako’s description made Kaiko wonder in awe about how parents could think in so many different ways. In any case, Miyako was up for it. Kaiko left her room and went back to her parents.

“……Oh, that girl?” her father muttered when she brought up Miyako. He had met her before; Miyako was the one who came to Kaiko’s rescue when he had stormed the editorial office, arguing with him on her behalf. The experience helped Kaiko steel her resolve and express her true feelings to her father.

“What kind of woman is she?” her mother asked.

“Well, she’s got moxie. The kind you don’t see much of these days. She has the courage to stand up for her friends, that’s for sure. If she was interested in raising silkworms at all, I’d love to hire her and teach her the trade. She could even inherit the business someday.”

Her father’s voice was still stern, but he only had words of praise for Miyako.

“My!” Her mother smiled slightly. “It’s not too often I hear you compliment someone like that.”

“…If it’s her, Kinue, I’ll allow you to go to Tokyo.”

“Father…! And yes, you’re right, Miyako’s a wonderful person!”

Kaiko’s face brightened with glee as she turned to her sighing mother.

“Well, if you and Kinue say so, then I’ll believe in her, too. But Kinue, if you’re leaving home for your dream, make sure you stick with it, all right? Because if you give up after suffering a setback and come home, I’ll never let you hear the end of it.”

Kaiko teared up at her mother’s firm, yet kind words. “Yes, Mother!” she said, looking her straight in the eye.

The next day, Kaiko was at a café near the GF Bunko office to talk about rooming with Miyako. Both of them were there together, and for whatever reason, Nayuta Kani was joining them. “I told her I’d be sharing a room with you,” she explained, looking a bit distressed, “and she just kind of came along.”

“Oh,” a confused Kaiko replied.

“Miku, I want to live with you as well!”

“Huhhh?!”

Kaiko looked positively bewildered.

“I want to live near Itsuki’s place,” Nayuta explained, “but after my little hospital trip, my mom and dad refuse to let me hole up in a hotel room or live by myself anymore.”

“Yes, I can imagine…”

Nayuta had been living by herself in a nearby hotel room for much of the last year, but an excessive workload and lack of steady food and sleep had landed her in a hospital bed. Kaiko was in the editorial office when the news of Nayuta’s collapse arrived, and even she could barely stand the suspense. She couldn’t blame Nayuta’s parents for wanting her out of there.

“But Nayu, why don’t you just live with Mr. Hashima, then? You’re his girlfriend, aren’t you?”

“Live with him… Ah-ha…ah-ha-ha…”

Nayuta was staring glassy-eyed into space.

“Nayu…?”

“…I’ve made the offer to Itsuki a million times. But he always adamantly refuses.”

“He does?”

That surprised Kaiko. She knew just how much Itsuki cared for Nayuta—enough to ditch his drama CD recording session to visit her in the hospital.

“I suppose it wasn’t a good idea to indulge in his cock so much during our first bedroom session that he literally started crying. He’s even wary of being alone with me in his apartment now… I’ve been able to hold back a little better lately, but if I don’t remain vigilant around him, I feel like I’ll push him right into bed.”

The raw confession made Kaiko and Miyako blush.

“…Yes, it sounds like you should maybe wait a little while. It’s a vital time for Mr. Hashima. If he’s living with a beast like you, he might not survive.”

“Sorry I’m such a sex monster…”

Nayuta hung her head at Kaiko’s rather harsh judgment.

“You know,” Miyako observed, “I think three people sharing an apartment might not be such a bad idea. If we can find a place around here, near both my college and the editorial office, that’d be perfect…but when I looked on the Net, I realized the neighborhood’s more expensive than I thought.”

“Yeah, it’s right in the heart of the city…,” Kaiko agreed.

“Right. Itsuki’s place is pretty big and low-rent for his area, but there are no auto-locks, and the toilet’s in the same room as the bath, you know? If it’s gonna be just women living together, I’d be anxious without some more security features.”

“That’s true… I’d at least want auto-locking and something on the second floor or higher, or I don’t think my parents will allow it.”

“Okay. And if you’re hiring an assistant, you’ll probably want a room big enough to serve as a workspace in addition to your bedroom, right? Trying to cover the rent on that with only two people…I’m not sure how doable that is around here.”

“If we can live together, I can cover the whole rent if you like.”

“No.”

“No thank you.”

Kaiko and Miyako immediately shot Nayuta down.

“I don’t want one person to take on all the burden for this place. We should all pitch in—on the rent, and with cooking and chores and taking out the trash, too.”

“Myaa’s right.”

“Nyahhh… That’s asking a lot of a former shut-in…”

Nayuta looked nervous about it. But Miyako flashed her a slightly forlorn smile.

“Well, Nayu, why don’t you take this opportunity to learn some cooking yourself? You know, for…um, when you marry Itsuki later.”

Nayuta’s eyes burst open, the gleam returning to her face.

“You’re right! Myaa, I’m gonna try my best!”

“Good. Keep that up, okay? So let’s talk about exactly what we want. We need to nail that down before we contact a rental office.”

“Certainly.”

“All right… You sure are helpful with this stuff, Myaa.”

With that, Kaiko, Miyako, and Nayuta began searching for an apartment.