Full-time comic artist

"Higashino, let's wait a bit, it's alright." Kitamoto said warmly, but he was clearly reluctant to leave.

"Sigh," Higashino sighed, patiently waiting in line with them.

The flowers had all withered by the time they arrived, and the midday sun was beginning to set. Almost an hour had passed, and just as Higashino Hibiki was getting bored, he could finally see the fence.

He was so excited to see the giant pandas!

He too found deep love.

Unfortunately, after walking a few more steps, he saw the guardrail ahead, which was winding and circuitous.

The open area in front was completely occupied; as far as the eye could see, it was full of people.

"It's the dead of winter, there's no need for that..." Higashino Hibiki's lips twitched.

“It’s absolutely necessary.” Akemi Akimiya nodded seriously.

“Mmm.” The two from the Northwest agreed.

They remained enthusiastic.

"Sigh." Higashino Hibiki sighed again.

He followed behind Akemi Akemi with his head down.

Another hour passed, and finally, the moment to see the pandas was almost here!

The panda we see today is Lingling, not a panda bred on loan from Ueno Zoo, but one that was airlifted from China.

It was quite lively at the time.

"Oh! We're almost there!"

"Mom, I saw a panda!"

"Teacher, I really want you to see this too."

Higashino heard the three of them muttering to themselves, and then he heard a bunch of girls screaming excitedly.

"So cute!"

"Lingling is so cute!"

"Ah! He moved! He moved!"

"Oh, my heart is melting..."

Higashino Hibiki quickly walked over, wondering if Lingling was just being silly.

"Huh?" He was stunned. The giant panda Lingling had turned its back to him and was taking a nap.

Occasionally, I feel an itch from rubbing against it.

"You can't even see the front, how can you tell it's cute? Right, Akimiya-sensei?" Hibiki Higashino said, puzzled.

but……

"so cute!"

Akemi Akimiya has also become a huge fan of giant pandas.

Standing on stage awkwardly singing, the kind of person who would say, "Brother, you sing so well!"

Chapter 68 Araki

The giant panda Lingling is very cute, but he turned his back to the tourists and didn't react at all.

The Japanese people cheered and exclaimed "Kawaii~" and "Here, here" over and over again.

Hibiki Higashino was standing next to a female high school student. Her smooth thighs were exposed in the dead of winter, and the girls' voices were sweet and cloying, which made Hibiki Higashino feel a little overwhelmed.

Although Shaanxi also has giant pandas, Sichuan has significantly more.

Higashino called "Lingling" in Mandarin, and it scratched its bottom but didn't react.

Akemi Akemi tried to call out to her, but remained unmoved.

So Higashino Hibiki imitated the Sichuan accent he had learned online and called out "Guo Lai! Guo Lai!" twice.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Akemi Akimiya asked in confusion without looking up.

"Gulai!" Higashino Hibiki called out again.

Lingling suddenly sat up, rubbed her head, turned over, and looked towards Higashino Hibiki.

"Amazing!"

"So cute!"

The crowd cheered.

Lying on all fours, with a black and white color scheme and dark circles under its eyes, it looks exceptionally cute.

It stared at him for a long time, and then, at Higashino Hibiki's call of "Karai," it crawled up to him and stared at him with a puzzled look.

It's as if it's saying, "Who is this guy?"

"Gulai!" Higashino Hibiki called out again.

Lingling shuddered, sat opposite Higashino, stretched out her paw and waved at him, giving a cute smile.

"What kind of spell is this?"

"It seems like he can understand what you're saying!"

"How clever!"

Hibiki Higashino quickly snapped a picture of the adorable, clumsy panda.

"Thank you very much!" Higashino bowed.

Lingling waved her hand, yawned, and lazily walked back.

Higashino's group's time was up, and they lined up to leave.

Miss Akimiya was very excited, grabbing Higashino Hibiki's clothes and shaking them incessantly, "What did you just say? Why is Ryo-ryo reacting!"

"Yeah, yeah!" someone behind them shouted.

The spot that should have belonged to the Northwest Duo was taken by those high school girls, and they were squeezed to the side, trembling.

The high school girls looked up at Higashino Hibiki with admiration, their eyes shining brightly.

"Brother, what did you just say?"

"Wow, that's amazing, brother."

Higashino Hibiki smiled but before he could say anything, Akemi Akemi grabbed him and pulled him away, saying, "Hurry up, everyone's gone!"

"What?" The high school girls waved helplessly at Higashino Hibiki, and one of them, a tall girl with long black hair, shouted, "I'm Kurata Ritsuko from Class 3, Grade 1 at Ueno High School!"

Higashino Hibiki breathed a sigh of relief upon arriving at a less crowded area.

"What's next? Which venue?" he asked.

Then I saw three people with their hands on their hips in front of me.

"What did you just say?" they asked curiously.

"Lingling is probably homesick," Higashino Hibiki replied.

……

At the Cangya Comics Store, Manager Yoshida's gaze was unpleasant.

Shueisha sent 500 copies of the "Hikaru no Go" manga, which should normally be enough for his large comic book store.

However, even after selling 300 copies, the long queue outside the store showed no signs of decreasing.

"What's going on? Didn't Shueisha do any investigation at all?"

These are all living examples of performance, but because there weren't enough individual volumes, they got lost.

"Quickly call Shueisha and tell them to send another batch as soon as possible, 500... 1000 copies!"

"At this rate, it may be far from enough."

……

The Jump editorial department is in complete chaos right now, with distributors all over the country calling.

"Yes, yes, we are negotiating."

Sasaki hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief.

The current situation is a contradiction between huge demand and too few manga volumes of "Hikaru no Go".

“10 copies of the initial edition is still too few.” Sasaki shook his head. He had known this would happen, but Horie Nobuhiko had always been stubborn and now he was finally in a panic.

"The idea of ​​observing before reprinting is simply not feasible."

He glanced at the conference room, where Nobuhiko Horie and the deputy editor-in-chief were having an urgent discussion to determine the number of copies to be reprinted.

Half an hour later, Nobuhiko Horie came out with a very bad expression and informed the editors in the editorial department, "It has been confirmed that 30 copies will be reprinted. Hurry up and distribute them to Tokyo in three days and nationwide in seven days."

"Notify the dealers to issue a notice."

After saying that, he put on his coat and hurriedly went out.

Sasaki understood that he had gone to communicate with the printing factory.

……

January 8th, Shueisha New Year's Party.

A year later, Hibiki Higashino returned to this venue.

This time, he saw the very popular Hirohiko Araki.

Several heavyweight manga artists gathered together, listening to Yoshihiro Togashi, who was at the very back, brag.

He ended Yu Yu Hakusho with a do-or-die attitude, which was big news for the entire Jump manga industry.

The usually tough editorial department actually let him finish the story, which made everyone very curious. Some people even looked at him like he was a hero.

I'm talking about Akira Toriyama.