"All editors! Conference room, now!"
Hiroshi Oumi's voice boomed across the editorial floor, cutting through the morning haze like a foghorn. He looked every bit the harried general on the eve of a losing battle, his face etched with a grim, urgent intensity.
Ayumi Ito, Sato Tetsuken, and a dozen other veteran editors dropped their pens and scrambled into the small meeting room. They exchanged anxious glances. It wasn't often the Editor-in-Chief personally summoned everyone on a Tuesday morning.
As the heavy door clicked shut, Hiroshi slammed a folder onto the table. "I just got off the phone with Okada Yoshihiro," he began, naming the editor in charge of Hayashi Hirokuni. "Hayashi-sensei had a stroke last night. He's in the ICU."
A collective gasp rippled through the room. A stroke was a death sentence for a weekly mangaka's career. Even if he survived, the recovery would take months, if not years.
"He's stable, but the situation is bleak," Hiroshi continued, rubbing his temples. "His series, The Myriad Gods, is going on indefinite hiatus. Effective immediately."
The editors whispered urgently among themselves. The Myriad Gods wasn't the magazine's top performer; in fact, its popularity had been sliding toward the bottom of the rankings, but it occupied a critical eighteen-page slot in Manga World GoGo.
The magazine had a strict contract with its subscribers. Each issue had to be at least 350 pages. You couldn't just ship a 'thinner' magazine because an author got sick; the subscribers had already paid for a specific volume of content. If they failed to deliver, the reputational damage would be catastrophic, and their competitors would be circling like sharks at the first sign of weakness.
"We need to fill those eighteen pages by Thursday morning," Hiroshi said, his gaze sweeping the room. "The printers won't wait. Does anyone have an author with a new series ready to launch on forty-eight hours' notice?"
Silence reigned. Launching a new series required months of planning, character design, and editorial review. Finding a replacement in two days was impossible.
"We have to do what we did three years ago during the Kirin Incident," one of the senior editors suggested. "We take a semi-monthly or monthly series with a significant backlog and pull them up to a weekly schedule."
Hiroshi Oumi's eyes flickered with a desperate hope. "Which of you has an author with extra chapters in the bag? I need someone who hasn't been slacking off."
He looked at the six editors responsible for the magazine's non-weekly titles. One by one, they shook their heads, their expressions filled with sheepish frustration.
"Shadow-Moon-sensei is always late as it is. I have to practically live in his lobby to get a single chapter," one editor complained.
"Phoenix-sensei skipped last month because he 'lost his muse' at a cat café," another added.
The monthly authors were mostly grizzled veterans, the 'Old Oil' of the industry.
...
They were more likely to announce their own hiatus than to step up to a weekly grind.
But then, a hand shot up.
"Chief! Aoyama-sensei has a backlog!"
Every head in the room turned toward Ayumi.
Nakamura, sitting next to her, felt a pang of jealousy. He'd wanted to suggest Tsuruki Junsei, but he knew the truth: Junsei was currently drowning in the redrafts for The Spirit Sorcerer. He had zero extra pages. He was barely hanging on as it was.
But Aoyama?
Aoyama was different. He was the "eccentric genius" who had the productivity of a printing press.
"He has chapters, Ayumi?" Hiroshi Oumi asked, leaning over the table, his eyes wide.
"He's sitting on over thirty completed chapters, Chief," Ayumi said, her voice ringing with pride. "He could go weekly for half a year without drawing a single new line if he wanted to."
The room erupted into stunned murmurs. Thirty chapters? Most authors struggled to stay one week ahead of the magazine. Having thirty chapters in reserve wasn't just 'preparedness'; it was borderline pathological.
"Incredible," Hiroshi breathed, a massive weight lifting off his shoulders. "Alright, it's settled. Edgerunners will temporarily take over the slot vacated by The Myriad Gods. We'll announce it on the official site and the socials immediately."
He looked at Ayumi, his expression demanding. "Call him now. I need the finished files for the next three chapters by tonight. If he performs well in the weekly slot... we might just make the move permanent."
Ayumi stood up, her face glowing. "I'll call him right away, Chief!"
She practically skipped out of the room. She knew Aoyama would complain about the 'extra work,' but she also knew he'd do it. And this... this was the platform Edgerunners needed to become a national phenomenon.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]