From Humble Beginnings...

December 29, 2014

“And the winner of the Monthly Girl Step category of the Shimizu Publishing House Contest is… Hiratai Shizuka, with her story ‘Break The Ice’!”

A young woman with dark red bob-cut hair and glasses was stunned at the announcement. She was among a crowd of around three hundred people in a large conference room at Tokyo Big Sight, having attended Winter Comiket 2014. As she nervously stood up, the crowd around her clapped and cheered. Under her breath, she whispered to herself, “Holy shit… Holy shit, this is happening…”

“Come on up,” said a man in his forties in a business suit with a red tie. As she walked up to the stage where a group of executives of Shimizu, a large publishing house in Japan, were sitting at a table, the announcer bowed to her and presented her with a plaque. “Here you go, Hiratai-san.”

“Th- Thank you,” she stammered out as she bowed to him before being handed the plaque. The two then shook hands as she walked over to the other people on stage. As she bowed and shook all of their hands, she began to get a bit more nervous when she saw the last person in line. She thought to herself, “The last person in line is Anzai Michi, the author of Uncontrollable Battle. He’s one of my favorite mangaka, and now… Now I’m on stage with him!”

“Congratulations,” Michi said to Shizuka, snapping her out of her thoughts. “You deserve it, Hiratai-san.”

“Thank you very much, Anzai-sensei,” she replied with a bow before the two shook hands.

“You seem a bit nervous,” he said to her in a quieter voice with a smile. “Don’t be. You’re fine.”

“I can’t help it,” she admitted. “I’m a big fan of you.”

“It’s fine, Hiratai-san. We’ll be coworkers soon anyway.”

“Thank you.” Shizuka gave him one last bow before exiting the stage, filled with excitement and joy from having met one of her heroes. “That was amazing,” she exclaimed in her thoughts. “I got to stand next to him! God, I hope I didn’t fangirl too much!”

…

Later on in the night, Shizuka and eight other winners of that year’s contest had a private dinner with the same judges of the contest, which consisted of two executives, two editors, two mangaka, and two novelists who all worked for Shimizu. All of them were in a joyous mood from having won, which meant that all of their works would now be published as either manga or as light novels by Shimizu. As Shizuka drank from a glass of beer, one of the other contestants, a man a few years younger than her with light brown hair, remarked, “Thank God I turned twenty a few days ago. I can drink with the rest of you.”

“No way,” she replied as she set her glass down. “You’re that young? I thought I was the youngest person here.”

“I am, actually,” he chuckled. “I’ve been writing my light novel for the past three years, and I finally had a break.”

“Nice, man. You know, speaking of age, I wonder who the oldest winner is…”

“It would probably be Azumi-san,” the young man said, referring to a man sitting a bit further down the table. “I think he’s in his late thirties.”

“Wow. Didn’t he win in the Lilywhite Storm category?”

“He did. I read his manga entry, and the art’s really good. You can tell he’s been doing this for a long time.”

“Hmmm…” Shizuka began to get curious about the older man, whose name was Keiichi Azumi. “Was he ever a doujinshi artist? I swear, when I read his entry, the art seemed familiar. I’ve been to Comiket a few times before, so maybe I saw his art there.”

“I think he was,” the young man agreed before turning to Keiichi. “Azumi-san?”

Keiichi turned to the young man, whose name was Takeo Furihata, having heard his name called. “Yes, Furihata-san?”

“Did you do any work before this? Like, did you go to Comiket?”

“I did,” Keiichi nodded. “Although I used a pen name back then, and not my actual name.”

As Takeo and Keiichi talked among themselves, Shizuka realized that indeed, she had seen the latter’s art in doujinshi, or fan-made/amateur comics, and fanart at Comiket before. “Now I know who he is,” she thought to herself. “And yeah, I can see why he used a pen name. His art’s always been good, but quite a lot of it is… Very steamy… Not that there’s anything wrong with sex and nudity in art, of course. I can’t judge, given I have some, uh… Interesting art of my own characters that I swear is totally just for anatomy practice!”

Then, one of the executives, a woman in her late forties, stood up to call everyone's attention. “If I may have a moment to speak, I would like to say a few words.” Everyone stopped talking and turned to her as she cleared her throat. “Thank you all for coming. All of your works have touched each and every one of us in some way, and we feel as though out of the two hundred and twenty-seven entries we had, the nine we chose are truly some of the best we’ve seen. We have faith that all of your works will do great in our magazines. Before anything else, I want to individually call out each winner. First, we have Iwakawa Taiki, the winner of our Weekly Riders category with his manga The Tale of Yuga.”

“Thank you,” Taiki, a man in his late twenties, replied with a bow as everyone around him clapped.

“Then, we have Iwami Masaru, the winner of our Afternoon Riders category with his manga Lazer Wars.” Masaru, who was in his early thirties, silently bowed and smiled, happy to see his work get recognized. “Then, we have our Lilywhite Storm category winner, Azumi Keiichi, with his manga Life and Love at St. Madeline’s Girls’ School.”

Keiichi waved and said to the others with a joyful tone, “Thank you. Thank you.”

“Then we have our Library Lightning category winner, Furihata Takeo, with his light novel series My Girlfriend’s Past Life. By the way, Furihata is in fact the youngest person to win this year and one of our youngest winners ever.” Takeo nodded as everyone around him clapped for his achievement. “Next up for our Shojo and Josei categories, we have Hiratai Shizuka, the winner of the Monthly Girl Step category with her manga series Break The Ice.”

As everyone congratulated her, Shizuka told them, “Thank you all. You’re too kind.”

“Then we have our Weekly Girl Step winner, Kaminaga Ryuichi, with his manga series Last Tears.” Ryuichi, a man in his mid twenties, waved at everyone as they congratulated him. “Then we have our Magic Magic winner, Yukawa Kimiko, with her manga series Witch Versus Man.”

Kimiko, an older woman in her late thirties, nodded and told the rest of the group, “Thank you. Thank you. It’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally here.”

The female executive chuckled before continuing. “Then, of course, we have our Rose Song category winner, Tanimoto Wakana, with her manga series A New Life After Thirty Years.” Wakana, a young woman roughly around the same age as Shizuka, nodded silently with a smile. “Finally, last but certainly not least, our Sunday Best Women category winner, Okada Eijiro, with his light novel series The Last of the Yuhara Family!” With all the winners announced, the female executive then said, “Now, let me turn things over to one of our two mangaka judges, Anzai Michi.”

As everyone clapped, Michi stood up to begin his speech. “You know, I’m not a man of too many words, so I’d like to apologize in advance for making this short. I’m glad to see so many people here of varying ages who have the passion to make these wonderful stories. I have full confidence that you all will succeed in some form or another. Perhaps one day, your series will be the next big thing everyone in Japan and even maybe beyond talks about. Even if it doesn’t reach that level, though, the fact you all have made it this far is something to be immensely proud of. Getting published is an achievement only a select few people can claim to have. I am proud to call each and every one of you my fellow mangaka and light novel authors. Thank you.”

After this speech, the female executive announced, “Thank you for the kind words, Anzai-sensei. Now, let’s all eat and have a good time. You all deserve it.”

All at once, the whole table said as they put their hands together, “Thanks for the meal!” As Shizuka began to eat her food, she thought to herself, “Not only have I won, but I’ve met some really cool people, too. Maybe I should hang out with some of them, or at least Furihata-san. He seems like a decent guy.”

Takeo looked over at Shizuka and asked her, “Hey, so, uh, are you doing anything after this?”

“Of course, just as I think about it,” she thought to herself. She then turned to him and replied, “Not really. Do you wanna hang out?”

…

After the official celebration was over, a few of the winners went out for more drinks at bars around Tokyo Big Sight. Shizuka and Takeo stumbled out of one bar in particular around midnight, having had plenty of drinks beforehand. “You’re, uh, you’re a pretty cool guy, actually,” Shizuka said to him.

“Wow, thanks,” Takeo slurred. “You can hold drinks down pretty, uh, well…”

“I got a few more years of experience than you do. Are you telling me you really never had any drinks before you legally could?”

“Nope. Never… Never touched alcohol in my whole fucking life before a few weeks ago.”

“Well, that explains it. I drank a few times before I, uh, officially could, to put it in a way.”

“No way. You did? Come on, stop bullshitting me.” Takeo was surprised, given that Shizuka seemed like a relatively reserved woman while sober. “I saw how nervous you were on stage, man.”

“Well no shit I was nervous,” Shizuka pointed out as they continued along the sidewalk. “I was meeting my fucking heroes. It’s not every day you get to bow and shake hands with a legendary… Legendary mangaka like Anzai-sensei.”

“I’ll tell you. That guy can fucking drink. Holy shit, did he slam down beers.”

“I was gonna say the same thing,” Shizuka agreed with a laugh. “I was getting a bit worried, actually!”

Then, the two of them saw a group of about three people up ahead, all of them dressed in cosplay of various characters from anime and manga series they both recognized. Takeo noticed them first and pointed them out to her. “Woah, hey, look at that.”

“Huh? Cosplayers outside of Comiket?” Shizuka was puzzled. “I thought you had to change in and out of cosplay when you got there...”

“Me too. I thought they didn’t want them wandering outside of the convention in cosplay and shit due to the cops. Maybe they’re going to a party.”

“Maybe…” She called out to the trio, saying to them, “Hey guys! Over… Over here!”

The trio, consisting of two girls and a guy all dressed as elf warriors from an anime they both had seen but minus their weapons, all turned to the drunk duo, with the guy remarking, “They look incredibly drunk, like… Holy shit, they’re wasted.”

“Not like we won’t be either when this night’s over,” one of the two girls pointed out. “We’re just getting started.”

Shizuka asked the trio, “Hey, you guys go to Comiket too? We did.”

“Yeah,” replied the other girl, who seemed to be the leader of the trio. “We got changed back into our cosplays minus our prop weapons. We just got out of a party and are going bar-hopping. Looks like you two have already been doing that.”

“Fuck yeah, we have,” Takeo replied with a jump of drunk confidence. “You know, uh… We’re… We’re authors, actually.”

The guy asked him, “Authors? Of what?”

“Come on,” Shizuka said to Takeo. “Already? We haven’t even been officially published!”

“Nah, nah, nah,” the first girl of the group replied. “It’s fine. I draw fanart, too. Are you guys doujinshika?”

“We’re a bit more than that,” Shizuka explained. “We actually won a contest.”

“Wait a minute,” the guy then realized. “Didn’t you two win the Shimizu contest? I think I saw your faces up on a Tweet they sent out about it.”

Takeo exclaimed with joy, “You’re God damn right we are!”

“Pardon him,” Shizuka added with a chuckle. “He just turned twenty a few weeks ago and he’s more hammered than me.”

“Holy shit he is,” the leader of the group replied as she looked over Takeo. “If he wants to, we can get him more drunk.”

Takeo yelled out, “Fuck yeah!”

“There’s your answer,” Shizuka laughed. “Let’s go!”

…

December 30, 2014

Shizuka awoke in her small apartment the night after the party, and next to her was Takeo. Both of them were completely nude, and as she opened her eyes and looked at him, she sighed and remarked to herself, “Yep, we fucked last night…”

“Huh…” Takeo awoke next to her and looked around. “Ugh, my head hurts.” He turned over and looked at his now-colleague and, at least for now, one-night stand. “Uh… Hiratai-san… I-“

“You’re fine,” she assured him as she got up and stretched her arms “We both got shitfaced last night. Honestly, I’d have been more surprised if this didn’t happen to me, although…” She chuckled as she turned to look at Takeo, “I gotta say, it’s not common to have a younger guy go after an older girl. Speaking of, do you have any recollection of last night after we went out for more drinks?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Takeo replied as he sat up in bed and grabbed his phone, immediately finding several messages. “Well, uh, someone sent me a few messages last night, and they contain some pictures.”

“Pictures?” Shizuka grabbed some underwear and a bra top and put it on before walking over to see the pictures. “Wait, what the fuck?”

Among the pictures sent were a few the two of them had taken with several cosplayers late at night. “Wow, we were shitfaced. Look at us.”

“No kidding. We must have hung out with them for a while if they got your number and sent you some pictures.”

“One of them even texted me and said that they hope one day she’ll get to cosplay a character from either of our stories, so we got that going for us.” Takeo then rubbed his forehead. “Ugh, fuck… I got a hangover.”

“You drank way more than me, and I was fucking gone.” She then sat down on the bed next to him and admitted with a blush, “From what little I remember, I had a pretty good night. You know, you saw a side of me that normally people don’t see.”

“You got that right. You aren’t the nervous girl that was on stage yesterday.”

Shizuka chuckled, amused by his words. “You know, uh… If you want to go to Comiket together today, we can. It’s the last day, and we got some time to kill before it ends.”

“Yeah, sure.” Takeo then got out of bed. “Is it okay if I shower? I smell like shit.”

“It’s not too bad, but yeah. Go ahead. I just gotta shower, too.” After an awkward pause between the two of them due to the implications of what Shizuka said to him, she sighed and asked, “Together?”

“I was just gonna ask.”

“Okay, let’s go. This doesn’t mean anything, though.” The two then walked into the bathroom together as Shizuka took off her underwear and bra. “You can get in first. I gotta brush my teeth.”

“Got it.” Takeo then stepped in and turned the water on as Shizuka began to brush her teeth. As she did, Takeo thought to himself, “God damn… I won, partied hard, and got lucky all in one night. This year was kinda rough for me, but the ending was fantastic.”

…

At Comiket, the duo walked around together, walking past throngs of people who were attending the convention. As they went past several doujinshi stands, Shizuka commented, “Truth be told, I have a lot of fanart I’ve done over the years, but I was never brave enough to try my hand here. I always only ever came as a regular attendee.”

“I can’t draw for shit,” Takeo admitted. “But I can write.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Admittedly, I thought that my own writing abilities weren’t too great, but I managed to get this far.” Curious as to how he got into the contest, Shizuka asked him, “So, how did you find out about this?”

“I read… Well… Way too much manga in my free time when I’m not working.” Takeo rubbed the back of his neck, indicating some embarrassment. “I have subscriptions for pretty much every magazine Shimizu publishes.”

“Holy shit, every single one?!”

“Yep. It’s about 300 yen per magazine, so it’s an expensive hobby. I have a few ideas, but the one I submitted is my most refined.” Takeo then looked at her and took a deep breath, confusing her initially. “So, um…”

“What’s up?”

“I know we, uh… We had sex last night. Is that… Are you okay with that?” The younger man was clearly nervous, fearing that he had already tainted a friendship or professional relationship with her.

Shizuka assured him, “It’s fine. We both stumbled into this. If you wanna just keep this as a one-night stand or something, that’s fine.”

Feeling a bit more confident, he told her, “I wouldn’t mind seeing you again, Hiratai-san.”

Shizuka stopped dead in her tracks, as did Takeo, worrying him. “Furihata-san, you know we basically just met, right?”

“Y- Yeah…”

“I don’t really think we have much basis for an actual relationship,” she admitted as she turned around. “At least not yet. I’m not saying you’re a bad guy. You’re not. If you were, we wouldn’t have fucked in the shower sober this morning.”

Realizing Shizuka was not looking for a boyfriend, he blushed in deep embarrassment at what seemed to be a total rejection. “That’s true… Yeah, I was stupid to ask that. I’m sorr-“

“But if you want to meet up as friends and maybe… You know, go back to my place again, just let me know. I’m not saying we’re gonna have sex whenever we meet up, but you never know.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah.” Shizuka then warned him, “But don’t let this get in the way of my work, or your work for that matter.”

“No, no, no,” Takeo assured her. “It’s fine!”

Curious about his experience with girls beforehand, Shizuka asked him, “Also, was that your first time with anyone?”

“Yeah…”

“Wow… Really?”

“Was, uh, that your first?”

“No,” she shook her head. “You’re the third. I’ve had a boyfriend before, but it didn’t end so well, and to be honest, it kinda turned me off from relationships a bit. I’m surprised you were willing to lose your virginity in a one-night stand. People tend to place quite a bit of value in that.”

“I don’t mind.”

Shizuka smiled and told him, “You know what, do you wanna meet up in the new year? I can’t do anything for a few days since I’m gonna work on refining the first few chapters of Break The Ice, but I’ll let you know when I’m free, Furihata-san.”

Takeo, excited, replied, “Sure thing!”

…

Later that night, Shizuka was sitting at her desk, drawing several panels of a chapter of Break The Ice. As she did, she thought about what she had done with Takeo the night before and in the morning. “Ugh, I hope this doesn’t crash and burn. The last thing I need is for this to derail my work, especially as someone who’s now a professional mangaka.”

While inking one specific panel, she got a text on her phone and picked it up, seeing that it was from an executive at Shimizu and getting worried as she flipped up her phone. The text said, ‘Give me a call when you have a chance.’ Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Shizuka dialed the executive’s number and waited for him to answer. “Hello?”

“You wanted me to call you, Hagino-san?”

“Yeah,” replied Kyosuke Hagino, the executive who had announced her as the winner and in fact the CEO of Shimizu. “I see you and Furihata-san are getting along pretty well. We noticed you two walking together at Comiket.”

“We’re just friends,” Shizuka replied. “Don’t worry.”

“Oh no, it’s fine,” Kyosuke assured her. “Look, we don’t really care about what you two do together as long as it doesn’t get in the way of your work. Actually, the reason I texted you is so we could actually meet up to discuss how Break The Ice is gonna get published.”

“Published? How so?”

“We’re gonna get you set up with an editor and review what you’ve drawn so far. How many chapters have you done?”

“Two and a half. I can stop now if you want.”

“No, no, no, keep going. The more work you already have done, the better. It’ll prevent you from being overworked. The last thing we want is our authors dropping dead, after all.”

“If I wanted to drop dead,” Shizuka joked. “I would have gone for a weekly manga series.”

Kyosuke chuckled. “Yeah. I could never do that. I’m not much of an artist myself, but if I was, I’d definitely do monthly or at least semi-monthly stuff. Trust me, you don’t want to see me destroy your characters.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I don’t get mad about that kind of stuff. If you wanna draw my characters for fun, go ahead Hagino-san.”

“I’ll have to remember that. Anyway, are you free January 3? It’s a Saturday.”

“Yeah, I should be. What time do you want me here?”

“How about 3:30 PM? It’s in the afternoon.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Excellent. I’ll see you then. Goodbye, Hiratai-san.” Kyosuke then hung up rather quickly, clearly in a hurry.

Shizuka put the phone down and breathed a sigh of relief. “Phew. Thank God. For a second I thought I was gonna get in trouble for what I did with Furihata-san…”

…

January 3, 2015

Shizuka walked to the front reception desk for Shimizu, checking in for her meeting. “Hello. I’m here for a meeting at 3:30 PM. I’m Hiratai Shizuka.”

“Alright,” replied the lady at the reception desk. “Let me just call up to tell them that you’re here. We’ve been expecting you, Hiratai-san.”

As the reception lady made a phone call, Shizuka got a text on her phone from Takeo. ‘hey there wanna hang out?’

‘in a meeting rn,’ Shizuka texted him back. ‘will text back later’

The receptionist lady then got off the phone and told her, “You’re all set. Go to the elevator and get off on the seventh floor.”

“Thank you,” Shizuka bowed before heading to the elevator. As she got in, she thought to herself, “I guess I got some time to spend with Furihata-san after this. Let’s see how this meeting goes before I commit to anything, though.”

She then got another text on her phone, again from Takeo. ‘u had a meeting today too?’

‘u did too?’

‘yeah mine was at 1 PM they set me up with an editor’

‘probably what they’re gonna do with me too’

‘they said they’ll have to edit some of my stuff, but it’s not too bad’

‘that’s what I’m expecting too’