May in Tokyo felt like a steamer, the sun's heat distorting the air above the ground into shimmering waves.
During the midday break, groups of students gathered in classrooms across the school, animatedly discussing the latest anime and manga releases.
"Did you guys see the latest chapter of Water Shadow? The protagonist is so cool!"
"It's mostly Ban Kazuto-sensei's amazing art skills that make it good. The plot is actually pretty average!"
"Speaking of art style, Hayama Riku is even better! He used to be a total flop as a manga artist, with terrible storytelling. But his collaboration with novelist Aizawa Yuki on Earth's Core Chronicles was mind-blowing—I was on my knees!"
Rei Kirishima overheard his classmates' heated discussion about the popular manga in the latest issue of Monogatari IC, but he felt no interest.
As one of Japan's top ten weekly manga magazines, Monogatari IC sold over ten million copies per issue. Almost every manga serialized in it was adapted into anime, novels, stage plays, and even movies and TV dramas.
But Rei, having been spoiled by a plethora of far more refined works in his previous life, found these popular Japanese anime and manga in this world... well, not exactly uninteresting, but more like "meh."
It's tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.
Having seen too many outstanding works, Rei Kirishima's threshold had risen, leaving him desensitized to anime.
But...
Rei packed his belongings and climbed the stairs of the first-year building, making his way to the tutorial building's rooftop.
He wasn't harboring any strange thoughts about the rooftop; he simply needed a quiet place to draw his manga without the distractions of the classroom.
While he wouldn't mind if his classmates found out about his project, he dreaded the thought of gossipy students tattling to the homeroom teacher, which would be a major hassle.
Pulling out the nearly finished manuscript from his backpack, Rei gazed at the work he had painstakingly crafted, for what felt like the hundredth time.
5 Centimeters Per Second
In his previous life, Rei had died from overwork. The good news was that he had been reincarnated.
The bad news was that his memories from his past life were still gradually returning.
Initially, upon arriving in this world, Rei had thought things would be simple. After all, he had been a hardcore otaku in his previous life. He figured he could just dredge up classics like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Yu-Gi-Oh! from his memory, work hard for three years, and then retire comfortably as a wealthy recluse.
His dreams were grand, but reality was harsh. Though he knew these highly valuable anime works existed, when he tried to recall their details, he found he could only remember fragmented bits and pieces.
For Dragon Ball, he could only recall the story of a monkey searching for seven glowing orbs.
For Pirate, he remembered a young man's ambition to become the Pirate King.
But why the young man wanted to be Pirate King, or why the monkey was searching for the orbs, remained a mystery.
Clearly, these fragments were insufficient to reconstruct the complete stories.
However, these memories were gradually returning. Otherwise...
Rei Kirishima gazed at the original manuscript of 5 Centimeters Per Second before him.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have had such a vivid dream a month ago, reliving his past life's experience of watching this tear-jerking, soul-crushing work and weeping uncontrollably.
In this world, Rei's parents had died in a car accident several months prior.
Yet Rei wasn't entirely homeless.
His parents had left him a dilapidated three-bedroom apartment in the outskirts of Tokyo, worth approximately 1.2 million yen.
However, due to the severity of the accident, the inadequate insurance coverage, and the division of liability, his deceased father had left behind over 2 million yen in debt.
Rei was currently living in the apartment, but no one knew when the court would rule, leaving him to wander the streets.
With his parents' savings frozen after their deaths, Rei Kirishima had been relying on the money his former self had hoarded over a decade—a meager sum of ten to twenty thousand yen—and his New Year's money to survive.
It was a truly disastrous start.
Otherwise, Rei wouldn't have immediately started drawing a manga adaptation of 5 Centimeters Per Second after recalling its plot last month, preparing to submit it for publication. Reality no longer allowed him the luxury of being a carefree high school student.
"Sigh..."
Rei sighed softly, picked up his drawing pen, and spread out his tools on the rooftop. He began working on the final part of the manga manuscript for 5 Centimeters Per Second.
It's worth noting that when Rei first discovered this rooftop last month, he found a set of abandoned tables and chairs inexplicably placed there, perfect for drawing manga.
Quiet, undisturbed.
5 Centimeters Per Second, as the first animated film by Makoto Shinkai, one of the Sakurajima Kingdom's national treasure-level animation directors from Rei's previous life, was originally divided into three episodes: Cherry Blossom Chapter, Cosmonaut, and 5 Centimeters Per Second.
Although the work wasn't particularly famous and lacked significant commercial value, among Makoto Shinkai's works from Rei's previous life, the one that left the deepest impression wasn't his breakthrough hit, Your Name.
Instead, it was 5 Centimeters Per Second, a film that always brought a pang of heartache whenever Rei recalled it.
It was a work I reread every year.
In his previous life, Rei had been a struggling manga artist and illustrator. Now, lacking the necessary resources, drawing manga by hand proved initially challenging. But after two months in this new world, he was gradually adapting.
Japan's internet was still in its early stages, but paper-based manga magazines remained dominant due to capital investment. The animation industry was booming, and renowned manga artists enjoyed absurd levels of status and income.
In Sakurajima during the 1990s, the peak weekly sales of the most popular manga magazine, JUP, had reached just over six million copies. Of course, that record was set during the Dragon Ball serialization era.
Yet in Japan's manga industry, this record had already surpassed twenty million copies and was still trending upward.
After all, the population was now ten times larger.
Every afternoon, television stations broadcast anime adaptations in rotation.
Walking the streets of Tokyo, Rei occasionally heard vaporwave music—a sound that felt both nostalgic and retro to him.
Moreover, Japan's youth population was approaching its historical peak.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the next decade would be a golden age for anime and manga.
Though Rei's mind was occupied with these thoughts, his pen moved swiftly across the page.
After recalling the plot of 5 Centimeters Per Second, Rei's mental energy surged, perhaps due to the fusion of two souls.
Visualizing scenes in his mind required no effort. With his eyes closed, he could vividly recreate anime scenes, freely adjusting viewing angles and perspectives.
In essence, his brain's CPU and graphics card functions had roughly doubled compared to an average person.
Storyboards for manga automatically organized themselves once he recalled the plot. The details, character designs, and linework for the manga he wanted to draw could be quickly drafted and refined in his mind.
This meant he rarely needed traditional manga storyboards when drawing, and his pen moved swiftly with minimal errors.
The reason it took him a month to complete the first hundred-plus pages of his 5 Centimeters Per Second manga adaptation was simply because he was still getting used to drawing manga with a pen.
The midday break flew by as he focused on drawing. Though he had found a sheltered spot on the rooftop, beads of sweat gradually trickled down Rei's neck.
A gentle breeze swept through, carrying a refreshing coolness from his back deep into his body.
"Here, take this. Wipe your sweat. It would be a shame if it dripped onto the original artwork—you're drawing so well."
"Oh, thank you," Rei said, casually taking a tissue from nearby and wiping his forehead and neck.
But he immediately realized something was off.
"Wait, who are you?"
He was the only one on the rooftop, wasn't he? Where had the tissue come from?
Rei turned to see strands of hair dancing gently in the breeze, a girl's delicate and beautiful features, and a faint smile playing on her lips. Her bright eyes were fixed on him and the manga manuscript before him.
"You're Miyu Yukishiro from Class 1, right?" Rei asked.
"You know me, Kirishima-kun?" Miyu asked, surprised.
"Of course I know you. You're famous in our middle school—no, across the whole school. But how do you know my name?" Rei's expression froze.
"Oh, I saw you drawing manga on the rooftop last month. I paid attention and found out your name," Miyu explained, spreading her arms and closing her eyes slightly to feel the breeze.
She then opened her eyes and glanced at the manga manuscript before Rei, noting the title on the first page:
5 Centimeters Per Second
"I don't remember seeing you here last month," Rei said, his expression thoughtful.
"You were so focused on drawing that I stood behind you for half an hour without you noticing," Miyu said with a soft laugh.
"In the past two weeks, last week, three days ago, and today, I've stood behind you five times while you drew manga, and you never noticed me once."
"Rei-kun, your focus while drawing manga is truly astonishing! If I hadn't noticed your sweat was about to drip onto the original manuscript, I wouldn't have spoken up today."
Rei's expression shifted slightly, his heart pounding with unease.
Have I been muttering about being a transmigrator from Blue Star while drawing manga over the past month?
"Is this... eavesdropping?"
"Eavesdropping."
Miyu watched a faint smile flicker across Bai Xi's delicate face as she met Rei's gaze and spoke softly.
"Rei-kun, that sounds too harsh. Why do you think this abandoned set of tables and chairs is here on this empty rooftop? Did they just fall from the sky?"
Miyu rummaged through her bag and pulled out a stack of blank manga manuscript paper and several professional drawing pens.
"There are over four thousand students at this school. Why would you think you're the only one who wants to draw manga? Or that you're the only one who thinks the rooftop is the perfect place to draw during lunch break? Before you came up here, I was already drawing manga here myself."
She sighed.
"I'm just reminding you of the truth, though. I'm not actually angry!"
Rei froze, then thought for a moment, his expression turning awkward.
"I'm sorry," Rei said. "You... you could have told me sooner."
"Well, seeing another student in school so focused and talented at drawing manga, I figured I'd put myself in your shoes. When I'm drawing, I hate being disturbed! Besides, you might have just been using the rooftop occasionally, taking my spot," Miyu said, her tone softening slightly.
Rei finally understood.
He had been occupying her drawing spot on the rooftop for the past month. She probably thought it was just a fleeting interest at first and didn't want to interrupt him right away.
A week later, he was still there.
Two weeks later, he was still there.
And today, he was still there.
"Never mind all that. Let's properly introduce ourselves," Miyu said, extending her hand to Rei.
"I'm Miyu Yukishiro, a professional manga artist... and a part-time high school student!"
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T/N- Oh, just to be clear I'm not stealing his translations, I'm doing them myself with a paid subscription, if you'd like proof I'll be happy to share. I'm just using his terms so readers aren't put off, after all this is a china based story so majority of the terms are in Chinese that need to be re-written.
I'll do a bulk release of 100 Chapters for now, the current raws only have 150 chapters in public and 260 paid.