Chapter 32: My Foolish Sister is Back
As time passed, this JUMP popularity battle, after a fierce struggle, finally came to an end.
Out of a total of ten thousand votes collected, Cooking Master Boy alone accounted for four thousand votes, shocking everyone in the editorial department.
Just the first chapter received such a high number of votes; if it were to truly continue serialization in JUMP, it might one day become an existence that surpasses the level of Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece.
After Cooking Master Boy was updated, business at major Chinese restaurants recently became incredibly good, especially Bamboo Moon, which served as the prototype, even reaching the point of being fully booked and requiring queues.
From being deserted to fully booked, it only took one manga chapter, showing how well Cooking Master Boy was received.
Even online, many people reported that after reading Cooking Master Boy, their anorexia had improved significantly, and now everything they ate tasted delicious.
However, to everyone's regret, Cooking Master Boy would not be serialized in Weekly JUMP, but rather in a monthly magazine that published one issue per month.
Although the monthly magazine offered more content than the weekly, it also meant that Cooking Master Boy could only be read once a month, which was sheer torture.
The second-place finisher, Kuro, although not getting first place, also achieved very impressive results.
Among the remaining votes, he alone received over two thousand votes. In the past, this would have been enough to make it a masterpiece ranking first in popularity.
However, who knew that Niizuma Eiji was ultimately up against the even more abnormal Naoto?
Compared to Ashirogi Muto, who came in third with less than a thousand votes, Niizuma Eiji was already very strong.
All things considered, Niizuma Eiji was indeed JUMP's current number one new work; after all, Cooking Master Boy was now a monthly magazine. At that time, the monthly magazine side would also need to arrange a new editor for Naoto to handle the handover.
But compared to all that, Naoto seemed to have a new problem now.
About a week later, it was already August.
At this time, school had also begun summer vacation.
Under the scorching air, even indoors, it felt very stuffy.
If there were no air conditioning, people might even be steamed alive.
"Phew~ I don't want to move at all, I'm so bored!"
Naoto was lying on the sofa at this moment, staring boredly at the TV program, feeling like a salted fish without dreams.
He didn't know why, but he always felt that after the holiday started, his whole body became lazy, and he didn't even want to touch his manga.
Recently, Kuriko had been busy with something, not coming to Naoto's house for several days, which made Naoto feel incredibly bored.
Although school was a bit tiring, at least it was fulfilling.
Every day, he would mess around with his troublesome friends, with Kuriko accompanying him, and he could draw manga when he came home at night.
But after the holiday, he couldn't find anyone, games weren't fun, and he didn't want to draw manga, just like a useless person .
"Sakuta went to work, who else can I contact? Matsumoto? Tsukigi?"
Just as Naoto was thinking about whether to ask someone to come over, his doorbell suddenly rang.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong!"
Accompanied by the urgent doorbell, Naoto sat up from the sofa, puzzled.
"Who would come at this time?"
Walking to the door, Naoto carefully considered who might be there.
Kuriko? Impossible, Kuriko had never used his door.
Sakuta? Also impossible, that guy was too busy to come here.
Who could it be then?
Before Naoto could open the door, the previously urgent doorbell had turned into violent knocking.
Listening to the sound, the person outside seemed to want to tear the door down.
"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming! Stop knocking, stop knocking! Seriously."
When Naoto opened the door, the person who appeared before him made him freeze.
He saw a girl who looked only fourteen years old, carrying a suitcase that was almost half her height, glaring angrily at Naoto.
"Idiot big brother! You finally decided to open the door?!"
"Reika?! You, why are you back?!"
Upon seeing the angry girl, Naoto couldn't even speak clearly.
This girl, only 1.4 meters tall, was Naoto's biological younger sister, Yamamoto Reika.
As mentioned before, after Mr. and Mrs. Yamamoto passed away, Naoto had been raising himself and his sister.
Unlike Naoto, Reika had always attended a private school and rarely had the opportunity to return home.
Especially after Mr. and Mrs. Yamamoto passed away, Reika simply stopped coming home. Including the funeral, this was only the third time Naoto had seen Reika.
Naoto recalled the last time he saw Reika. Because he was so unfamiliar with his sister, the atmosphere between them was very awkward. In the end, they only spoke on the phone basically once a month when he sent her living expenses, making them seem like strangers.
Due to not having contacted her for so long, Naoto almost forgot that he even had such a sister.
"Why am I back?! Did you forget what time it is now?! Have you ever seen a brother who doesn't even know his sister is coming home?!"
Hearing Naoto's words, Reika felt even angrier. What was this idiot big brother thinking all day?!
"Ah? You're on summer vacation?"
After Reika's reminder, Naoto finally remembered that it was already summer vacation.
Although the vacation times for middle school and high school were different, Reika should indeed be on summer vacation around this time.
"But you never said you were coming back? You didn't even make a call. I thought you weren't coming back this summer."
Naoto also had something to say about Reika's accusation.
Have you ever seen a sister who doesn't even say a word before coming home?
"Ugh~ that, this..."
Faced with Naoto's counter-question, Reika didn't know how to retort. She couldn't possibly say that she had forgotten to call, could she?
How could she be so embarrassed to say she almost forgot about her own brother?
One could only say that these two were indeed a pair of idiots.
One almost forgot he had a sister, and the other almost forgot she had a brother. It was too ridiculous.
Looking at Reika, who stammered for a long time without saying a word, Naoto then looked at Reika's sweaty face and the suitcase that was half her height.
(This silly sister, she didn't walk all the way back carrying that suitcase, did she?)
"No matter what, it's good that you're back safely. Come in first."
Looking at this familiar yet unfamiliar sister, Naoto felt that his days ahead might not be easy.