Chapter 20: A Successful Meeting
Kasannoin Ayase chased after Shimizu Hakuseki and ran around the triangular workbench in the middle of the room. After a while, both of them began to gasp.
"Hu Hu Hu Hu," puffed Shimizu Hakuseki. He held the workbench and looked at Kasannoin Ayase, "Do you understand?"
"Hu hu hu… what, what do I understand?"
"This is karma!"
Kasannoin Ayase didn't say anything but continued chasing after Shimizu Hakuseki. At the same time, Shimizu Hakuseki began to run away. They ran many rounds again. This time, they were really exhausted.
"So, can't we just sit down and talk about it?"
"So, are you willing to change the story in the manga manuscript?"
"Of course, no." said Shimizu Hakuseki, "If you are not satisfied, I can't help it. After all, I'm the one who holds the brush. Ha ha, I'm exhausted, let me sit down, Ha ha."
"That's not right. I'm the scriptwriter, the general in the army! You should listen to me."
"Even if you are the general, at the front, you still need to rely on the middle-level commanders to battle for you. In short, please believe me, I will lead us to victory, and ultimately, the readers will prove that I am right."
The Manga & Literature Research Club's conference was still as noisy as ever, but fortunately, it was over safely.
When they left, Kasannoin Ayase was angry, Shimizu Hakuseki looked happy, and Takahashi looked thoughtful.
Before leaving, Hakuseki patted on Takahashi's shoulder and encouraged her, "I've finished the manga manuscript, it's your work to clean the lines and add shadows. Come on, show me your strength!"
After that, Shimizu Hakuseki turned around and was going to leave, but in a moment, he suddenly felt something wrong. An ominous foreboding enveloped him. It seemed that some scenes seemed familiar to him, but for a moment, he couldn't actually find anything wrong.
Thinking everything again, Shimizu Hakuseki suddenly realized something and turned around, stopping Takahashi.
Takahashi looked at him and asked, "Is there anything else?"
"What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about how to draw the scenes of explosions and battles."
"You're not thinking about how to modify my work, are you?"
Takahashi pushed up her glasses, "Ha, ha, ha, how can it be?"
"Your laughter is suspicious."
"But you've already finished drawing the manuscript. My job is to clean lines, add shadows and draw backgrounds. Do you think I can modify the story in this situation?"
"Well," Shimizu Hakuseki touched his chin and thought for a while, "Indeed, it's not possible."
I was overblown… Shimizu Hakuseki showed an embarrassed smile and said, "Excuse me, I was a little suspicious. You don't have to think too much about the scenes of explosions and battles. After all, it will be a short story. The lines of the painting should be clean and simple, so the scene of explosions can be completed only by drawing a white block of smoke."
"Doesn't it need to draw the granularity of the explosive smoke?"
"You don't have to do that. It's sufficient if you can show the layers of smoke."
The two had another discussion about the paintings of the battle scenes and the explosion scenes before they went back home.
A week later, Takahashi finished her work.
In the manga, the main work value was reflected in the "creation", which was the work of the scriptwriter and the painter, while the assistant's work was mostly to undertake the "hard" work. Takahashi was very competent in her work, and also greatly beyond it.
"Your painting skills are pretty good, and your basic skills are very good too," Hakuseki said. He looked at the finished manuscript submitted by Takahashi and suddenly roared, "But why does my space fighter have a mouth and eyes? Why can it speak like a human?! What the hell is this?"
In the finished drawings, there was basically no change in the scenes, but Oda's space fighter "Alien Fighter Z" had a mouth and eyes and could even speak. As a result, the space fighter instantly changed from a cool alien killing machine to a cute, talkative Mr Aircraft. The genre of the manga had also changed from a juvenile, hot-blooded manga to a children's manga.
Takahashi pushed her glasses and calmly said, "Because this space fighter is made by the Doctor using alien technology, this thing, well, this space fighter actually has its own intelligence, which is called AI, artificial intelligence! It's normal that AI can speak."
Shimizu Hakuseki covered his face with his hands painfully.
I have been very careful, but I never thought that you would still make trouble in this manner!
Aunt Takahashi, you are so insidious!
But I still can't stand this!
"Even if it's AI, why is it so cute, it has big eyes and tongue… by the way, why does a space fighter have a tongue? Where is the tongue from!"
"Don't think about it with your shallow human's mind. It's alien technology, it's not something you mortals can understand. For some unspeakable reason, aliens make Mr. Aircraft very cute, with mouth and tongue."
"The unspeakable reason is that you put it there!"
Takahashi looked out of the window and calmly said, "It's none of my business. It's all done by aliens."
"Well, let's call it a day, let's call it a plane. Here's the war in the atmosphere. In the early morning, there was a fierce battle between the protagonist and the evil boss."
"Well, is there any problem? I've painted the explosion and battle scenes carefully. I did it according to our discussion. What's wrong?"
"No, no, you did all that well. The problem is the background." Shimizu Hakuseki pointed to the corner of the battle scene, where was the sun was the background of the painting.
"Tell me, why is this sun brushing its teeth with a bathroom cap on its head?! The protagonist Oda is fighting with the boss, why is there a sun brushing its teeth in the sky? You ruined the atmosphere in the scene completely!"
"Oh, you mean this."
"And this, in the last scene, Oda defeated the boss and put on a cool pose, and then drove the space fighter away. The background here is the moon, which should be a beautiful, sci-fi scene. Why is the moon covering itself with a quilt and going to bed in this scene?!"
"Because he is the moon."
"What? What do you mean?"
"When the sun just rises, it's the morning. After getting up in the morning, of course, the first thing is to brush your teeth; when you see the moon, it's already night, it's time to go to bed, so the moon has to sleep too."
"…"
Shimizu Hakuseki stared at the girl without a word. Takahashi also looked back at Shimizu Hakuseki fearlessly. Shimizu Hakuseki wanted to put pressure on Takahashi with his eyes, but the girl's glasses reflected strange silver light which prevented him from looking straight at her eyes.
Is this a pair of glasses or a protective shield?!
The weird silence lasted for a while. Shimizu Hakuseki suddenly jumped up and shouted, "Ah ah, I'm going to be driven mad by you!!!"
Kasannoin Ayase sat comfortably in her chair and sneered, like chanting haiku on the stage, "Ah, this is karma!"
Shimizu Hakuseki ignored her sarcasm. He said to Takahashi, "What I said was not that the sun should brush its teeth in the morning and the moon should sleep in the evening. I know that. But that's not the point. I'm talking about the atmosphere. Atmosphere! Oda was fighting fiercely there, the sun and the moon totally ruined the atmosphere!"
"I think it can make the story more relaxed and happy," Takahashi said, taking it for granted. "Isn't manga something that can make people feel relaxed and happy? Battle will make people panic, but if there is a lovely background, it will make people feel more at ease."
"Holy crap, no one will feel at ease seeing this, ok?! My heart is going to explode!"
This time, he didn't chase after Takahashi around the room. No matter how angry Shimizu Hakuseki was, he would not do anything to a girl. He had to admire Takahashi once more after looking at the drawings from the beginning to the end. The scenes on the papers had hardly changed, she just added eyes and mouth for the space fighter, which had made the manga look very strange.
I'm not drawing a funny cartoon!!!
As a result, Takahashi won the debate. "So, is it over?"
Shimizu Hakuseki was very depressed, "This is the only way to finish the manuscript. After all, you have done it, and there is no turning back."
If it was the 21st century, he could modify the manga using any computer, but it was in 1974 now. It was almost impossible to modify hand-painted manga because it was almost equal to draw the manga again.
"Then, shall we contribute the short manga to the magazine?" asked Kasannoin Ayase.
"…"
"…"
Shimizu Hakuseki and Takahashi were hesitant. If they didn't contribute it, all these days of effort would be wasted. Manga should be read by readers. However, if they contributed it, they knew it couldn't be called a "masterpiece".
It would be too embarrassing to let others read this ridiculous story!
"Ha-ha, you guys, now you know it's humiliating? You should have expected this result long ago!" Kasannoin Ayase said, "Since you can't make a decision, then I will make the decision. This short manga must be contributed. Even if everyone laughs at it, we should listen to their sarcasm with our heads held high. After all, this is our work! I will contribute it to Shonen Jump and see how the editors and readers will comment on it, and remember this lesson. It is said that the first prize winner will receive a reward of 500,000 yen."
"Half a million yen! That's a lot of money!"
"It's none of our business."
"It's humiliating, but I think it's also a boost." She continued, "Only when we know the problem can we find a way to solve it."
"That's right," said Shimizu Hakuseki. "It doesn't matter that we failed this time, but it also exposed the problems of our research club. I think the biggest problem is that we all act in our own way, we need a leader."
"Yes."
"I agree."
For a moment, the atmosphere in the room seemed to be in harmony.
"So who should be the leader of the research club?"
The harmonious atmosphere disappeared in an instant, and the atmosphere in the room suddenly became delicate. The three people all realized that the leader could decide the direction of the future works of the Manga & Literature Research Club, and none of them was willing to give in.
"Well, let's leave this issue for the next discussion. It seems that the Manga & Literature Research Club needs a president."
"Agree."
"Agreed!"
The Manga & Literature Research Club's meeting had come to a successful conclusion once again. It was gratifying that no bloodshed broke out.
