Master of the Machete Style Manga

Chapter 3 The Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose
Chiyoda Ward, Akihabara Electric Town.

Natsume Mio was shopping with her best friend, but she didn't buy anything and seemed a little distracted.

She wanted to confess her feelings to Ken Sakamoto the day after the exam.

But Ah Jian seemed to be avoiding her and immediately ran away.

I sent him messages later, but he didn't reply.

I haven't even opened it yet; it's still in the "unread" status.

Because I keep thinking about this, I can't sleep at night; a figure keeps haunting my mind...

On the day of the exam, after she finished answering the questions, she took a nap in the exam room and even had a dream.

Lately, that dream keeps replaying in my mind almost every night.

Although only a few minutes passed in reality, it felt like a lifetime had passed in the dream.

In her dream, she confessed her feelings to Ken Sakamoto after finishing her exams, and the two naturally ended up together.

They spent the entire holiday visiting all the fun places in Tokyo.

One rainy night, after watching a movie, neither of them had an umbrella, so he pulled them into a love hotel.

Then, she gave herself to him.

After the first time, it was as if some kind of seal had been broken.

From then on, their dates always included a scene of them staying in a short-stay hotel.

But she comes from an ordinary family, and spending money like this every day would be too expensive.

So she started rushing between various recording studios to voice minor characters in animations and games.

At this time, A-Jian's comic was also successfully published. According to A-Jian, his royalties were quite generous, and the two of them were in much better financial condition.

They can even afford to book rooms in high-end themed hotels and buy her all sorts of cosplay outfits.

She remembered the book title she saw in her dream very clearly.

"Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!"

Ah Jian is always busy attending reader gatherings or publishing events.

One day, Ah Jian messaged her saying he was going to a reader gathering, but she discovered that Ah Jian was actually sitting in a small bar with another woman, behaving intimately...

What followed shocked her even more.

Because besides that, Ah Jian also frequently interacted with another woman.

Including her, Ah Jian was dating three people at the same time!

What happened next was outrageous; she actually teamed up with two other women to force Ah Jian onto the rooftop.

Three cuts and six holes; watching him lie in a pool of blood, his body gradually growing cold...

Throughout the dream, she could only clearly see Ah Jian's face; the faces of the other two women were blurred as if they had been pixelated.

Mio Natsume felt that the latter half of her dream was definitely just her imagination.

My own mind is too dark; I actually made such assumptions about Ah Jian.

She specifically searched for the book "Miss, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!"

It was clearly drawn by a female writer and has nothing to do with Ah Jian.

The webpage was still saved in my phone's browser; it was a news article published by a publishing house.
[New JUMP News: Genius young female author @MarchHaru's debut work, "Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!", will be published on February 14th in "Weekly Shonen Jump+"!]

After loading the page this time, there was more content than when I saw it a few days ago:

[Exclusive Interview Preview: New author @MarchSpring will be giving a live interview to commemorate the release of her debut novel, revealing for the first time the story of how "Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!" came to be. Please subscribe to her YouTube channel @JUMP CHANNEL!]

Mio Natsume doesn't read many manga and doesn't usually pay attention to this kind of work, so she doesn't know who this Sangetsu Haru is.

She generally prefers watching animation.

After all, I applied to the vocal music club, and my future goal is to become a voice actress. Watching anime can help me learn the techniques of my seniors.

It's probably because I may have seen the publisher's advertisement by chance on weekdays, and then subconsciously recreated it in my dream.

But today is Valentine's Day...

If things had gone according to the dream, Ah Jian should have been waiting for her downstairs at her house, and then they would have gone on a date together...

Natsume Mio felt a pang of unease.

I'm so awful. I actually imagined Ah Jian as such a scumbag...

Mio Natsume felt extremely guilty.

She knew about Sakamoto Ken's family situation; it was truly remarkable that he could juggle work and studies so well, and even create art at the same time.

If only I had money, I could just sponsor him...

Funding...?
When this keyword popped into her mind, Natsume Mio thought of a woman from her dream.

Although she couldn't see the woman's face clearly, she saw that when the woman went to find Ah Jian, she was driving a red Porsche.

Haha, what am I thinking?

In reality, there's no such thing as a rich heiress keeping Ah Jian as a mistress.

But once this thought arose, Natsume Mio felt more and more that the dream might be some kind of premonition.

To this day, Ken Sakamoto has not told her where he lives, but she remembers the address from her dream.

Ah Jian lived in a very run-down apartment, and she had lived with him for a while.

Hanahata 4-chome, Adachi-ku.

How about going and taking a look?

Natsume Mio immediately stopped and told her companion that she had urgent business to attend to and needed to go back.

……

In an apartment in Adachi Ward.

Ken Sakamoto received a reply from the editorial department of Shonen Jump+.

It is said that the manuscript has passed the editor's initial review, but the editor wants to discuss the later parts of the plot with him in person, and a schedule for the meeting is attached.

There happened to be a free time slot in this schedule, so Ken Sakamoto immediately clicked to make a reservation.

He hopes the serialization will start as soon as possible so he can earn royalties as early as possible.

Recently, Ken Sakamoto has been working tirelessly every day to push forward the progress of his manga.

Once the official serialization begins, authors usually hire several assistants to handle time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks such as outlining and background work; otherwise, it would be difficult to meet the requirement of weekly updates.

However, Ken Sakamoto currently has no assistant and completes all the procedures himself.

Fortunately, Fujimoto Tatsuki's works are not known for their detailed visuals, but rather for their visual impact, panel design, and uniquely quirky characters and plots.

So, drawing for more than 12 hours a day, the fourth chapter of Chainsaw Man has been completed, and the manuscript for all seven chapters of the first volume will be finished this month.

At the current pace, even if we officially start serializing it in the future, we won't need to hire an assistant.

Thinking back to his past life, he was always lazy when it came to creating content. If it weren't for a certain fan leader urging him with a whip, he probably would have given up long ago.

After all, she gave so much...

His manga from his past life, "Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!", sold only so-so. Later, he claimed to have received generous royalties, but in reality, it was a private "reward" from a certain girl...

Actually, it would be more accurate to say it's the cost of being kept.

While tidying up the original manuscript, Ken Sakamoto suddenly received a LINE message.

The sender is Natsume Mio; she wants to ask him out for a walk.

Since I didn't actually click on the message, I could only get a general idea from the preview in the pop-up window.

This is one of his little habits.

The message will not be marked as "read" unless you click on it.

Last week, during the later part of the game, I had to deal with all three of them at the same time. If a message was marked as read, I had to reply immediately. So, Ken Sakamoto told them that he usually kept his phone on silent and rarely checked messages.

Just pretend you didn't see it. At least wait half a day before replying. That way, it will seem like you don't care as much.

He knew all too well what Natsume Mio's purpose was in inviting him.

Isn't it just that she's after my good looks?

Last week, she was the most difficult to please.

Ha, this time, everything other than making money will have to wait.

Ken Sakamoto took the manuscript, changed his shoes, and went downstairs.

(End of this chapter)