After repeatedly confirming that he wasn't joking, Hisashi decisively hung up the phone and rushed straight to his home for an in-person confrontation.
But as the two sat opposite each other on the sofa, Hisashi flipped through the thick stack of manuscript pages in front of him and sighed with a complicated tone, "You actually did it..."
It wasn't just the manuscript; he also saw black-and-white illustrations mixed in, and the corner of his eye twitched slightly.
Not only did he write a novel, but he even drew the illustrations for it?
Being able to draw is truly convenient.
...Wait, no.
Hisashi rubbed his temples with a headache and asked, "When did you start creating this?"
"Hmm..."
Akira recalled and said, "Not long after meeting Mr. Tanaka and the others."
Hisashi carefully calculated the time, then widened his eyes slightly, looking at the thick stack of manuscript paper on the coffee table in disbelief.
It's only been a little over a month, right? How could he write this much?
Do you have that much free time?
Uh, this guy actually seems to have quite a lot of free time.
Hisashi felt an even worse headache.
The more important issue was that the other party didn't look like he was just playing around; he genuinely wanted to submit this light novel for publication.
He had already sounded the highest alarm in his heart and tried hard to organize his words: "Mochizuki-sensei, while I understand what kind of talent you possess, regardless of everything else, isn't it too much of a stretch to create two works simultaneously?"
"Indeed."
Akira nodded in agreement.
In his previous life, he had overestimated his abilities and tried writing two novels at once; that period was quite agonizing, and he often mixed up the protagonists' names on both sides.
This really isn't something an ordinary person can do.
However, this time, Fsn had a bit of creative effort involved, but "Kara no Kyoukai" was purely a copy-paste job, so it couldn't really be called simultaneous creation.
But Hisashi was unaware of this. Seeing Akira nod in agreement, he screamed internally: If you know that, then just honestly draw manga, you jerk!
If it were any other new author, faced with such neglect of their primary work, he would have definitely given them a thorough scolding by now.
But unfortunately, Akira was not a new author in the conventional sense; he was an indisputable genius Manga Artist.
Not only that, but in his heart, the other party was also a super-potential stock who could become the next generation's pillar Manga Artist.
And at least up until now, the quality of the manga manuscripts submitted by the other party remained impeccable, so it wasn't easy to directly criticize him for 'neglecting his work'.
Furthermore, if the other party focused, he could completely draw one chapter of manga in two days.
It was actually him who had actively limited such behavior, which gave the other party so much free time, and thus time to do these things.
This was also one of the reasons why he couldn't seriously lecture the other party.
But what could he do?
He couldn't really let him draw one chapter every two days, completely ignoring market feedback, and just keep drawing like that until the finale, right?
Now this single track of thought had become a dead end on both sides.
Sigh, this is frustrating.
Hisashi sighed heavily again in his heart, but on the surface, he maintained a kind smile and said: "If that's the case, then about the light novel..."
"Please rest assured," Akira smiled. "I won't let other things affect the serialization of Fsn. As for this "Kara no Kyoukai", I've already finished writing it."
"You've already finished it?" Hisashi was somewhat surprised to hear this.
He looked at the thick manuscript paper on the coffee table again; judging by the word count, issuing two or three volumes shouldn't be a problem.
It looked like it was just the volume of a medium-to-short light novel.
In any case, hearing this news, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Although what he wanted to discuss wasn't whether it was finished or not, if the other party could stop there, he felt it wasn't entirely unacceptable.
What else could he do? Of course, he had to forgive him.
So he decided to temporarily move past this issue and continued: "Then, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"
Hearing this, Akira said somewhat embarrassedly: "Well, it's actually about the submission and publication of this light novel..."
So he really does intend to play for real?
Hisashi couldn't help but sigh again, then said with some helplessness: "Although from my position, I would prefer you to focus on drawing manga and not waste your energy and inspiration elsewhere."
"But realistically speaking, neither I nor the editorial department has the right to interfere with matters outside of manga creation."
"So, as long as it doesn't delay the manga serialization, please use your own discretion for such matters."
Furthermore, although he hadn't read Akira's novel yet, he desperately hoped that the other party's writing level was terrible.
That way, after the other party's submission was rejected and he realized the reality, he could stop engaging in these crooked paths.
Akira didn't know that his respected editor actually held such evil thoughts.
However, after hearing the other party's statement, he explained even more embarrassedly: "Actually, I roughly understand what Mr. Sasaki is saying. It's just that the situation with "Kara no Kyoukai" is slightly special."
"It's like this..."
Next, he explained the situation of "Kara no Kyoukai" and his inner doubts to Hisashi one by one.
And after finally understanding the situation in detail, Hisashi was immediately dumbfounded, confirming repeatedly: "You mean to say that "Kara no Kyoukai" and "Fate/stay night" are considered works in the same series?"
"Yes."
Like hell they are! Why can you act so relaxed about it!
Hisashi was furious, but in the end, it turned into a bitter smile: "You really know how to cause me trouble."
"Sorry." Akira scratched his head sheepishly, then continued to ask: "So in this situation, would it be quite troublesome if I wanted to submit it?"
"Hmm, in this case..."
Hisashi quickly recalled the relevant legal statutes and contract clauses, rubbing his temples with a headache: "According to the definitions in the existing clauses, it shouldn't be affected."
"But as works in the same series..."
His tone paused for a moment, and he admitted helplessly: "To be honest, the entire industry hasn't had similar examples before, so I might need to study it carefully."
Who could have thought? As a manga editor, he would one day need to study such problems.
"Also," Hisashi looked at Akira and said: "Can I take these manuscripts back to read first?"
In fact, there was a prerequisite before starting to study these problems—that was, the light novel written by the other party was good enough to meet the standards for signing a contract.
If it couldn't be signed, thinking about these issues in advance would be just looking for trouble.
And—he wanted to see exactly what the quality of this work, which was in the same series as Fsn, was like.
To this, Akira smiled: "Of course, no problem, go ahead."