"How is it?" Haruki asked.
"Third place!" Sora replied, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
She tried to play it cool. After all, she was the oldest one there and felt like she should set the tone—calm and composed.
But the excitement leaked through. Before meeting Haruki, she'd overseen a handful of manga serializations, but most had fizzled out due to lack of popularity. Rurouni Kenshin was the first series she'd worked on that even broke into the top ten.
And now it had cracked the top three.
For a moment, she even forgot about the whole weight scale debacle. Her heart was racing.
But the one who looked most shaken… was Kotone.
Sure, Sora was the editor, but she hadn't drawn those panels by hand. She hadn't penciled in every detail of the characters or filled in the screen tones late into the night. She hadn't lost hours making sure the backgrounds looked perfect.
Haruki might be the creator, but as his assistant, Kotone had poured her own heart into the pages. And seeing this result… it stirred something inside her. Something wordless and overwhelming.
Sora passed the phone over to Haruki and Kotone.
Just like last week, Demon Realm and Hidden Girl held the top two spots. Their vote counts had barely changed.
But third place—that had changed.
Where Celestial Book once stood, Rurouni Kenshin had now taken its place.
The vote count had soared past the 30,000 mark for the first time. 31,512, to be exact.
Only a little over 3,000 votes separated them from second place. And they were more than 1,000 ahead of Celestial Book, now in fourth.
Haruki let out a long breath.
"Sixth issue in, and we finally cracked the top three."
Kotone and Sora nodded instinctively, still a little dazed.
But then they paused, glancing at him in disbelief.
He was a rookie—this was his debut serialization in a major magazine. And already top three?
Still, when they looked at Haruki's expression, they remembered something he'd said not long ago.
He didn't care much for milestones along the way—his eyes were fixed on the top spot.
And unless he reached it, even news wouldn't shake him too much.
Sora thought back to what Haruki had told them a month ago.
What was shocking wasn't just the vote count.
It was the fact that, in just a month…
He was already within striking distance of it.
Even though it was late, the lights were still on at Kurokawa Publishing's editorial office.
Daichi, the editor-in-chief, hadn't gone home.
He sat alone in front of his monitor, logged into the backend of Sora magazine's voting page, eyes fixed on the live data feed.
His gaze lingered on the title ranked third—Rurouni Kenshin.
He'd seen works like Demon Realm and Hidden Girl before—heavy hitters. Over a decade in the manga industry had exposed him to a fair share of such successes.
But this one? This was different.
The trajectory of Rurouni Kenshin Remembrance had stunned just about everyone in the industry.
No advertising push. No famous name behind it. No social media presence to lean on.
Just six weeks of quiet serialization… and it had stormed its way into the top three.
Daichi understood the implication well—if a rookie manga could climb so quickly, it meant the rest of the lineup was starting to look painfully average by comparison.
It was a shame, he thought, that this manga was being serialized in Sora.
And despite its strength, it hadn't received the spotlight it deserved.
Not that Daichi could do much about it.
Even as editor-in-chief, his influence only went so far. In truth, he was more like a senior figurehead at Kurokawa, a legacy staffer from before the company had taken on outside investment.
Ever since that injection of capital from a major media group headquartered in the capital, decisions hadn't really been his to make. A deputy editor had been assigned directly from headquarters—an outsider, parachuted in to "gain experience."
Daichi had seen it before. These were career climbers. They came to mid-tier publishers like Kurokawa just long enough to pad their resumes, latch on to a few promising titles, then head back to Tokyo, ready for promotion.
The top publishers didn't gamble on rookies—neither artists nor editors. So mid-level companies like theirs had become training grounds, not creative hubs.
And once they left? Daichi had rarely heard of any lasting success from these so-called talents.
But in the meantime, they left chaos in their wake. Kurokawa had lost many good editors because of it.
Haruka Sato, Akari… all once his staff. They'd gone on to do better elsewhere.
If not for Mizushiro-sensei and the unexpected breakout of Rurouni Kenshin, Daichi suspected Sora would've left too.
As for Daichi himself—well, with three kids still in school, quitting just wasn't an option. But it didn't mean he was content.
After a long pause, he pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Director Tanabe, from the Operations Division? This is Daichi from Editorial. You've seen today's numbers, right? Look, I wanted to ask—do you think we can allocate some marketing resources starting next week? Subway ads, bus wraps, bookstore posters—maybe even a magazine cover featuring Rurouni Kenshin…"
"The deputy editor? Listen, I'm the editor-in-chief. Trust me. Just go ahead."
He hung up and sighed.
It wasn't much, but it was something.
Meanwhile, on Mangastream, one of the biggest online communities for manga fans, the top post in the "New Manga" section hadn't changed in days.
The thread for Rurouni Kenshin was still pinned at number one.
Two million views. Nearly a hundred thousand comments.
And it was only a matter of time before it disappeared.
Mangastream was a well-known platform. But the truth behind its recommendation section was messier—it often hosted low-res, unauthorized uploads of manga pages, often taken from early magazine copies.
If a post stayed quiet, publishers usually turned a blind eye.
But if it blew up one? The moment the original publisher filed a complaint, it'd vanish instantly.
Tonight, fans from across the country had flooded the thread, hammering the refresh button.
They were all waiting.
And finally—it happened. The sixth chapter had been posted.
Still the same grainy, pixelated phone snapshots. But no one complained anymore. After weeks of waiting, they'd grown used to it.
The site even lagged momentarily from the sheer number of people trying to open the update at once.
The plot? Just as intense as ever.
The Shogunate were preparing to raid Kenshin's hideout. He and Tomoe were about to flee, and just as he reached out for her hand…
The comment section immediately exploded.
"Out of pages again?!"
"Author you villain!!"
"WHY WOULD YOU END IT THERE?!"
The usual chaos ensued. Everyone yelling. Everyone annoyed.
But deep down, they knew what came next.
Another week of waiting.
Soon, the angry posts turned into discussions. Plot theories, character analysis, wild speculation.
Then, one comment hit differently—and drew the attention of hundreds:
"Based on how Mangastream usually works, this post will probably get taken down soon. It's too popular. What's everyone gonna do then? Just give up? Or find another way?"
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-atreon.com/Alioth23 for 50+ advanced chapters)