Tokyo: Oreimo

She posted it after she got home last night. The picture was a silhouette of Ryougi Shiki on the cover of "Kara no Kyoukai" and the text was just one sentence: "My first commercial-level illustration work."

The number of likes below is more than she has in the past three years combined.

Ayumi stared at the number for a moment, then exited the forum and re-examined the price tags and change on her desktop.

Just after seven o'clock, Ryosuke and Ayano arrived.

Ling Nai wore a dark gray duffle coat today, with a scarf wrapped up to her chin, leaving only her eyes showing.

Ryosuke was dressed much the same as yesterday, in a black down jacket and a canvas bag slung over his shoulder, containing a thermos that Ryo had prepared for him, filled with hot coffee.

"morning."

"Gao Cheng! You've come!"

Ryosuke placed the canvas bag on the spare table inside the stall, then rolled up his sleeves and glanced at the two cardboard boxes in the corner.

"Have the additional 800 copies arrived?"

"It's here! It arrived at six o'clock! I counted it myself! Not a single one is missing!" Tian Zhongxue patted the cardboard box, then grabbed Ryosuke's sleeve. "Takashiro, have you seen the forum? Someone posted a thread last night recommending our doujinshi, and it's almost 300 replies!"

"I glanced at it while passing by the station and saw a bit of it."

Ryosuke watched the post being built up the whole time yesterday.

In the early hours of the morning, Gokou Mao sent him a message about the matter and asked, "Should we delete the negative comments?" He replied, "No need, normal discussions don't need interference."

But when he saw the more than 3,000-word essay on "Kara no Kyoukai" last night, he was still somewhat moved by the enthusiasm of the original poster.

It was late at night when I posted this, and it's already a trending topic this morning, with no sign of the number of reposts and replies decreasing.

"The online spread of the virus was indeed faster than expected."

Ling Nai, standing to the side, had a strange look on her face.

It's not exactly a strange result, is it? Why does everyone seem so impressed?

On 'Future Dimension', discussion threads of this level are not uncommon.

As a 'Rumiko Takashiro', she can easily create such a tall thread with just a casual post.

Moreover, this guy...

Ling Nai glanced at Ryosuke, who seemed to be in a good mood.

......

Around nine o'clock, the number of people in the Dongsi Museum gradually increased.

Members of other groups arrived one after another, and some were already using tape to mark the queuing lanes on the ground.

Shota Okubo and Yosuke Kobayashi arrived at 8 o'clock, while Misaki Asakura rushed over a little after 9 o'clock, her scarf not tied properly, and she was still clutching a pineapple bun she hadn't had time to eat.

"I'm so sorry! The tram stopped for five minutes at a stop along the way, they said it was some kind of signal malfunction..." Asakura said breathlessly, bending over.

It's obvious they ran all the way here.

"No problem, no problem! You've come at the perfect time, quickly help me distribute these promotional cards!"

Tian Zhongxue stuffed a stack of leftover promotional cards from yesterday into her hand, saying, "When the event starts, you'll stand in front of the booth and hand them out to everyone you see until you run out!"

"Eh? President, it's me...."

"This is an important combat mission!"

Ayumi sighed beside her, "You're just lazy, you don't want to post it yourself, do you?"

"I didn't!"

The manga club's booth is ready.

The roll-up banner was unfolded, the company flag was hung up, the sample copies were placed upright, the price tags were affixed firmly, and the two kraft paper boxes were opened, with eight hundred brand-new copies of "Kara no Kyoukai" neatly stacked under the table.

Tian Zhongxue stood in front of the stall, hands on his hips, surveying his small territory, and nodded in satisfaction.

At 10 o'clock, the exhibition hall's loudspeaker came on.

The announcement that the second day of Winter COMI was officially starting echoed three times over the loudspeakers overhead. The metallic scraping sound of the iron gates being pulled up carried from Hall 1 to Hall 5, followed by the iconic, earth-shaking sound of running.

On the second day of the winter COMI, the number of people is always double that of the first day.

Thanks to positive word-of-mouth from the first day, coupled with the weekend effect, the number of attendees today far exceeded that of the opening day.

The moment the crowd surged into the passageway of the East Fourth Hall, Tian Zhongxue sensed something was wrong.

Yesterday, when the event started, there were a lot of people, but most of them just walked along the passageway and stopped to browse when they saw an interesting booth. Occasionally, they would be attracted by Ayumi's illustrations and stop in front of the manga club booth.

But today is different.

There was a small group of people, about a dozen or twenty.

After pouring in from the entrance, they walked straight toward the manga research booth without any hesitation, their goal extremely clear.

"Found it! This is it!"

"Dongsi-127b, that's right!"

"Exactly the same as described in the post!"

Before Tianzhong could even react, and before Misaki Asakura could even hand out the first promotional card, a line of nearly twenty people had already formed in front of the booth.

The girl who was first in line wore round-framed glasses and had a huge corporate paper bag hanging on her shoulder. As soon as she entered, she took out a 1,000 yen bill and slammed it on the table.

"Please give me a copy of 'Kara no Kyoukai'!"

"Okay, thank you for your patronage!"

While Tianzhong was frantically collecting money and giving change, Asakura Misaki finally realized what was happening and started handing out promotional cards to the people queuing behind her.

Ayumi dragged Shota Okubo to the front of the booth to maintain order.

"Don't rush, don't rush, there's more to come! No rush—don't push over there!"

The queue was stretching out at a terrifying rate.

Yesterday, the people queuing up were attracted by Ayumi's illustrations. They decided to buy after flipping through the sample book. Some hesitated, some put it down, and some flipped through it three times before finally paying.

Today is completely different. More than 80% of the people in line today have already read the forum's recommendation posts and looked through the promotional images, and some even made up their minds to buy it last night.

They didn't come to "browse," they came to "rob."

"Don't push! Two books per person! Two books!" Shota Okubo shouted until his voice was hoarse, but it was half drowned out by the surrounding noise.

Misaki Asakura's hands never stopped handing out promotional cards, one after another, without even having time to lift her head.

Yosuke Kobayashi stood guard on the other side, acting as a living broadcaster of purchase instructions, expressionlessly repeating: "Eight hundred yen per book, accepting 1000 yen bills and coins, please count your change on the spot!"

Ryosuke stood on the inside of the stall, as calm as ever.

Are you still signing today?

Ling Nai tilted her head to look at him; this guy showed absolutely no intention of picking up a pen.

Ryosuke twitched the corner of his mouth.

Are you kidding me? The first day of signings is enough. Today there are 800 books. If I have to sign them all, I'll be exhausted.

He shook his head.

He had already mentioned this to Hotan Middle School, and it was considered one of the first benefits.

The team continued to advance.

The second, the third, the tenth, the twentieth. The doujinshi on the table were decreasing at a visible rate. Tian Zhongxue didn't even have time to sort the collected coins into the coin box, but just threw them into the large paper bag behind him, the coins hitting the banknotes with a clattering sound.

"President! We're out of change!"

"I'll use my own savings to cover it first!"

"You only have 120 yen in your secret stash!"

"Then hurry up and find someone to exchange! Ayumi, go find Kobayashi to exchange!"

"Xiao Lin didn't have any change either!"

The manga club's booth was a complete mess.

The team moves forward, gives change, and restocks.

Yesterday, Okubo was worried about what to do if he couldn't sell all the extra prints, but when sales actually started the next day, he was in a real bind.

Who would have thought that sales would be even faster today than yesterday?

Ten forty.

Ayumi took out the last row of doujinshi from the cardboard box and neatly stacked them on the stall.

"These are the last hundred copies." Ayumi lowered her voice. "Eight hundred copies, and this is all that's left. The speed is much faster than yesterday."

Tian Zhongxue glanced at the line in front of him. There were still countless people behind him, including several young people who had clearly just run over and were still panting.

"Can you see the back of the line? You can't even see the turn! It'll be over in less than fifty minutes!"

"I saw it."

"Then why are you still so calm?!"

Ayumi didn't answer, but just glanced again at the large paper bag full of coins and banknotes on the corner of the table.

Even though she was as hot-headed as Tian Zhongxue, she still fulfilled the most fundamental duty of the vice president—managing the accounts.

Based on the current flow of people, there are at least one or two hundred people in the queue, and that's only the part that can be seen. There are still people outside the passage trying to squeeze in.

At 11:15, the length of the queue in front of the stall had not decreased much.

When Ayumi picked up the last copy of "Kara no Kyoukai" from the stall and handed it to the tourist in front of her, there were at least sixty or seventy people still queuing behind her.

"Thank you for your patronage," Ayumi said.

The short-haired girl glanced down at the doujinshi in her hand, then at the empty display shelves at the stall, a look of relief on her face.

Those behind her clearly noticed as well—there were no more books on the table.

"Wait a minute, how come it's gone?"

"Isn't there more? In that box..."

"The box is empty. I just saw that blonde girl take out the last few books."