The flashback faded, returning to the present timeline.
Sensing a presence nearby, Himeno spoke. "Aki... it's here."
Under everyone's gaze, a door slowly creaked open.
What emerged was a bloated, grotesque head equipped with a single foot and a single hand, using them to crawl forward like a bizarre insect.
「To be continued」
Shuu Fumiya flinched slightly at the sight of the weird creature. It was mostly just repulsive.
Generally speaking, the plot of Chainsaw Man was still building at a slow simmer.
The Divine Race, on the other hand, was surging ahead, its plot reaching higher peaks with every chapter.
Some readers were already starting to whisper that Chainsaw Man was proof Aoyama had run out of ideas.
After all, Chainsaw Man currently lacked any massive plot twists and seemed to focus mostly on dark humor.
Even the arrival of the Bat and Leech Devils hadn't delivered any major shocks.
In contrast, The Divine Race was incredibly engaging. While the academy backdrop felt a bit standard, the blending of historical fiction with a scientific approach to slaying gods felt incredibly refreshing and satisfying.
Because of this, while The Divine Race hadn't climbed any higher in the rankings, its popularity was absolutely rock-solid.
Chainsaw Man, meanwhile, was showing early signs of a dipping readership.
To Aoyama, however, this wasn't a concern. Chainsaw Man wasn't designed to explode into a massive hit from chapter one like Edgerunners.
It was a slow-burner. And there was a very specific reason why it had achieved such monumental success in his previous life.
So... he would let the bullet fly for a bit.
Besides, Aoyama had a much more important task on his hands right now.
---
"Aoyama-sensei, you mean to tell me... you want to publish a standalone manga volume directly?"
Hiroshi looked at the thick stack of manuscripts on the desk and asked.
"That's right," Aoyama replied with a grin. "I've been preparing this carefully for a long time. Consider it a gift to the readers before the Edgerunners anime and game launch!"
"A gift... for the readers?"
Hiroshi had never heard of a mangaka giving a gift by dropping a full, completed standalone volume out of nowhere.
"What's the title of this work?" Hiroshi looked down at the title page. "Fire Punch"?
"That's right, Fire Punch!"
Aoyama assumed a punching stance. "It means, 'Quick, use Fire Punch on him!'"
The title... sounded like an old-school, hot-blooded shōnen manga.
Hiroshi felt a bit puzzled. Had Aoyama really drawn a traditional, retro-style battle manga?
Furthermore, hadn't Aoyama just seamlessly transitioned into serializing Chainsaw Man?
Everyone knew serializing a weekly manga drained the majority of a creator's time and energy.
With Chainsaw Man on his plate, where on earth did Aoyama find the time to draw another complete story?
And looking at the sheer volume of pages, this was definitely not some short or medium one-shot.
This drawing speed and quality... the man was a humanoid printer!
With his estimation of Aoyama silently climbing even higher, Hiroshi looked at the pages.
"How about I read through it first to ensure there are no issues passing censorship? Then we can discuss publishing the volume. Sound good?"
This was standard procedure. They had to verify that Aoyama hadn't drawn anything that would violate publication filters.
Directly printing it without checking could lead to disaster.
"Sure thing," Aoyama nodded with a smile.
He left the manuscript on the desk and headed home.
Hiroshi walked with Aoyama to the door, then called some staff to scan the pages into the computer.
He would read it on a monitor later. These were original ink pages; he couldn't just flip through them carelessly.
But then again... that stack was incredibly heavy. Did Aoyama carry this over all by myself?
After the staff finished scanning all 83 chapters,well over a thousand pages,Hiroshi didn't rush to read them right away. He had to handle his daily workflow first.
An editor-in-chief's schedule was packed dense; he couldn't drop everything instantly. He had a meeting to attend in the afternoon.
---
6:00 PM.
The editorial department of the publishing house wound down its day at a relaxed pace.
Hiroshi noticed the clock and stretched his arms. "Ah, finally time to go home!"
Even as editor-in-chief, he longed for the end of the workday. They were all just workers; why push for excessive overtime?
Unless there was an absolute emergency, Hiroshi refused to work late.
He wanted to set a good example for his subordinates. If he stayed late, the whole department would feel pressured to do the same.
He grabbed his briefcase and stepped out of his office.
"Right, I should take Aoyama-sensei's Fire Punch files with me to read tonight."
Remembering what he needed, he went back into his office and turned on his PC.
This allowed him to log in remotely later tonight and view the scanned pages of Fire Punch stored on the drive.
The company never cut power at night, even with an empty office. The company didn't care about a minor electricity bill.
After setting that up, he left for good.
"Chief, I'm heading out."
Ayumi was also packing up her things to leave.
"Good, get some rest," Hiroshi nodded approvingly.
The Ayumi who used to force herself to stay until 10:00 PM had finally broken that bad habit after working in this city for over a year.
No need to work overtime if there was no reason to. Too much overtime leads to health issues, and that would correspond to a real headache for the company.
They weren't a heartless mega-corp like Arasaka.
Hiroshi drove down to the basement parking and headed straight home.
After enjoying a quiet dinner with his wife, son, and daughter, Hiroshi logged into the company PC and opened the scanned directory for Fire Punch.
"Another work from Aoyama-sensei. Let's see what we're dealing with," Hiroshi muttered casually.
He didn't plan on finishing the whole thing tonight. He would read a portion before heading to bed.
Fire Punch. The cover featured a man with half his face consumed by fire, looking ahead with deep gravity.
Hiroshi clicked to the first official page.
In a world blanketed by heavy and endless snowfall, a boy carried a girl on his back, moving slowly through the snow.
'Humans born with the ability to use miracles are called...'
'The Blessed.'
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]