Akira probably never would have imagined that the biggest headache for the two editors regarding the short manga "Weathering with You" was actually how to release it.
Even if he knew, he would likely laugh it off; after all, it wasn't his problem to worry about.
He'd just let them deal with the headache.
Having finally finished drawing "Weathering with You," he had completely relaxed during this period, spending several days just lazing around at home.
And so, time slipped away until September 28th, when Issue 43 of Weekly Shonen Jump was released, and with it, the content of Chapter 12 of Fate/stay night.
Night was also announced.
The story picks up right from the previous chapter—
Emiya Shirou managed to escape the core blast radius with Saber, but his back was still injured by shrapnel from the impact.
Meanwhile, the spot where Berserker stood looked as if it had been hit by a meteorite, leaving a massive crater, and the ground had turned into a molten hell due to the intense explosion.
However, Berserker's figure still stood in that burning hell, seemingly completely unharmed.
"—Even an attack from an A-rank Noble Phantasm can't cause it any damage——?!"
On the other side, Emiya Shirou's attention was drawn to a broken sword hilt on the ground nearby.
Even though it was just a broken hilt, he could somehow imagine the "complete form" of this arrow, and imagine Archer...
...drawing his bow and firing the "arrow."
Watching the hilt gradually dissolve, he found himself inexplicably preoccupied with it.
"Shirou, what was that just now——?"
"————Archer's 'arrow,' that's the only way to think of it, right?"
Meanwhile, Illya expressed surprise and admiration for the attack Archer had shown, starting to take an interest in him.
Thus, she decided to let the group live a little longer and retreated for the time being with Berserker.
It wasn't until the two figures completely disappeared that everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At that moment, the pain from Emiya Shirou's injuries finally erupted, causing him to collapse to his knees.
Saber only then noticed the injury on Shirou's back and hurried to stop the bleeding, only to find that his wounds were actually healing at a visible rate; she assumed he was using healing magecraft.
But Emiya Shirou was clueless about it, and after another burst of pain, he passed out directly.
Next was a single-panel black screen transition, and in the following panel, from a first-person perspective of eyes opening, Emiya Shirou found himself in a strange place.
After a few close-ups, the camera switched to a panoramic view: it was a desert filled with all sorts of swords, like a graveyard of blades.
Emiya Shirou looked lost, but before he could figure things out, the shot narrowed back to himself, and he suddenly woke up in reality; it turned out the scene just now was a dream he had.
"Ah, you're awake? Anyway, it's good that it's nothing serious."
"Huh?"
Even more shocking to him was that Tohsaka Rin was actually sitting by his bed, watching him.
Seeing him wake up, Tohsaka Rin stood up to leave.
And at the end of the manga, she nonchalantly dropped this line: "Anyway, from now on, we are enemies."
This chapter was a slightly subdued end to the battle, and on the surface, it did seem a bit ordinary.
To readers of this world, aside from learning that Emiya Shirou possesses a special recovery ability, the other foreshadowing and mysteries remained somewhat incomprehensible.
——
Why was Emiya Shirou so fixated on Archer's arrow?
What did those images in his dream mean?
To this, Akira would say:
Those are all Emiya Shirou's cheats!
Unfortunately, the revelation of these power-ups would have to wait to unfold slowly later on.
And this week, besides the serialization of FSN, two even more important events appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump:
First, "Rurouni Kenshin" reached its final chapter this week, officially announcing the end of the manga.
"Rurouni Kenshin" began its serialization in 1994, personally witnessing the final glory and subsequent decline of Shonen Jump's Golden Age.
Not only that, but it also carried the banner alone during Shonen Jump's dark period, accompanying Shonen Jump as it gradually emerged from the mire and welcomed a second spring.
For Shonen Jump and its readers, this work held extraordinary significance, even representing an era to some extent.
And as if in a passing of the torch, at the same time "Rurouni Kenshin" ended, this issue of Shonen Jump welcomed a new serialized manga—
"Naruto."
This was the second important situation Akira was watching.
You're finally online, Kishimoto Masashi.
The content of the first chapter of "Naruto" was already so familiar to him that it couldn't be more familiar.
Simply put, it started from Naruto Uzumaki's prank on the Hokage Rock and ended with him using the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu to defeat Mizuki and successfully graduate.
Even without mentioning the manga and anime itself, in the early years of Naruto fanfiction, this plot was one of the mandatory checkpoints for countless transmigrators; he had read it so much he could almost recite it from memory back then.
Of course, he could still recite it now.
There was one more thing.
Perhaps because he had read too many Naruto conspiracy theories in his past life, seeing the first chapter of "Naruto" again now, no matter how he looked at it, the Third Hokage really seemed to be drawn like a villain.
Whether it was his smiling expression or his serious one, there was always an indescribable sense of conspiracy.
Well, maybe it really was just his own issue.
Regardless, with the launch of "Naruto," the familiar "Big Three" era in his home country was about to arrive; now only "Bleach" had yet to debut.
However, considering Kubo Taito was already serializing "zombie powder" in Shonen Jump at this time, it could at least be said that the three great authors of the "Big Three" had successfully met.
It was just that Kubo Taito's current situation was a bit pessimistic.
Last week, the Shueisha rankings for "zombie powder" were 13th, slightly better than the 14th place from the week before.
But even within the "rookie protection period" of the first 8 chapters, the rankings for "zombie powder" had already started hovering in the lower reaches; this situation was definitely not good.
If it continued like this, he might soon receive a notice of "cancellation."
But that wasn't his problem to worry about.
For him, besides the manga side, there was finally new progress this week with Being and "Marigold."
A month after the "HEY^3" program aired, the monthly sales for "Marigold" were finally tallied: 835,000 copies!!
Haruka informed them of this good news with a very excited tone.
Counting the previous 43,000 copies, the total sales of "Marigold" had reached 878,000 copies.
Although it hadn't reached 1 million copies yet, everyone knew very well that breaking that number was only a matter of time.
A rookie debut, a first single CD, and sales exceeding a million.
Even in an era around 1999 when monster rookies were emerging in droves, such a result was enough to gain them intense external attention and the company's highest priority.
Thus, Haruka notified them to come to the company tomorrow to discuss more specific upcoming activities.
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