manga-con PT 3

"Hey, I 'd like to enter the contest."

"Okay, sign this paper, the contest starts in 10 minutes head behind the curtain to your left."

HEY HEY LISTEN UP THE ART CONTEST WILL BEGIN SHORTLY. A REMINDER THIS WILL BE FANS VS PUBLISHED ARTIST, GOING BY THIS IF SOMEONE BEATS 3 OR MORE PUBLISHED ARTIST, THEY WILL BE OFFERED THEIR OWN SERIES IN THE WEEKLY GRAPHIC MAGAZINE.

THE RULES, YOU GET 3 MINUTES TO DRAW A PROMPT. THERE IS 6 SERIALIZED ARTIST HERE AND 8 COMPETITORS, RAISE THE CURTAINS!

NOW THEY NEED TO BEAT 8 SERIALIZED ARTIST NOBUHIRO NATSUO ARTIST OF MICRO, KATA ASARAGI OF FIBER, SAGI HARUKA OF ROBOT, NEGIKU HARUTA OF HAREM MANGA TO EASE MY PAIN AT 3AM, RYO TAKADA OF DEVIL INSPIRE, TSUKASA OF BLUE LINED AND FINALLY TATSUI RYUKO THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND, THE ARTIST OF ONE KILL.

WHOOWHOOWHWOWHWOWHWOWHWOWHOWHWOWHOW!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW ALL YOU IN THE CROWD ARE READY AND EXCITED?

BEGINNING! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

NOW LET'S GOOOOOO!

THE FIRST PROMPT IS A FEMALE SWORDSMAN CHOPPING A SAMURAI'S HEAD OFF, woah that's dark, AND GOO.

ANDD STOP. WE'LL COME AROUND AND TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR DRAWINGS THEN THE CROWD WILL VOTE @ REDDRAWINGS.COM. * NOTE: not an actual voting website. *

THE VOTES ARE TALLYING IN NO WAY LILLY AKISA IS IN THE LEAD. WITH HER DRAWING OF THE BROWN-HAIRED WOMAN WITH THE BLOOD SPLATTERING OVER HER. WHILE THE BASE OF THE BODY BLOCKS HER OWN WOW IT'S REALLY DISTURBING, BUT CONGRATULATIONS. LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT SECOND IT'S SAGI HARUKA DRAWING NOT AS BLOODY WITH THE ANGLE BEING BELOW THE BATTLE AND THE WOMAN COVERS MOST THE BODY BUT THE HEAD. wow this is good who would've thought this would be the best moment of my life. TO REMIND YOU WHO WEREN'T HERE EARLY THESE WILL BE SOLD AT THE RED DRAWINGS COUNTER IN A BID DON'T WORRY THEY'LL ALL BE AUTOGRAPHED BUT GOOD LUCK STEALING THIS SAGI HARUKA MASTERPIECE FROM ME.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU WISH IT'LL BE MINE.!!!

wow I was nervous but first place in the first round now I reallly believe I can win, and I placed a few places ahead of RYUKO.

I can't believe I let that high schooler scare me. I'm the adult here. I'm the great editor Tachima. that tattoo must be fake but. I don't need to take any chances; I'll just go back to the room before Reima checks in.

" Hey, hey Tachima why're you out of your room remember this is for your own good ya can’t be a creep or you'll never get a girlfriend. if I catch you again, I'm going to report you to the police, okay."

"y-yeah I understand, w-wow I better go back to my room before I get noticed."

ANDD CUTT THE VOTES LILLY AKISA TAKES FIRST 3 POINTS, OH FOLKS TOTAL AIRHEAD MOMENT HAHA. not funny huh. WELL, THE TOP GET 1 POINT WITH 1RST AND 2ND GETTING 3 AND 2 RESPECTIVELY.

LET'S SEE RYO TAKADA TAKES 2ND 2 POINTS TO HER. NEXT PROMPT LET'S SEE OH IT SAYS YOUR BEST FRIEND.

" Sorry Sophia this must be awkward."

" What are you talking about awkwardly?"

" You mean you don't know what I'm referring to, wow how dense, how mighty fall hehe."

" Are, wait you think hahaha that's hilarious, you think Lily would choose one of us, probably a friend from her gang but us haha I mean sure believe your childish fantasies haha."

" Childish? why you-"

" Okay calm down child watch the contest."

GOO! WOW THE SPEED AT WHICH THESE ARTIST WORK IS AMAZING I ONLY WISH TO BE THIS GOOD. AND SOME OF YOU MIGHT TOO SO I'M PUTTING IN THIS AD FOR NEVERLAND COMICS AND THEIR COURSE TO LEARN TO DRAW FEATURING ONE OF THE ARTIST HERE TODAY.

OKAY JUST 1 MINUTE LEFT YOU MIGHT SEE SOME OF THESE BEST FRIENDS HERE YOU NEVER KNOW.

AND TIME!!, AGAIN CAST YOUR VOTES @REDDRAWINGS.COM AND WE'LL GET THE RESULTS IN A MINUTE SO ARE YOU ALL HAVING A GOOD TIME AT MANGA CON.

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE TO HEAR IT AND YOUR VOTES ARE IN OHH! LILLY FELL TO THIRD PLACE THIS ROUND, I GUESS YOU WEREN'T FEELING HER DRAWING TWO FRIENDS HUH.

" Humph what did I tell you Sophia she was going to draw at least one of us."

" Yeah, but Lilly looks a little strained from drawing both of us. I hope we didn't hinder her."

" y-yeah maybe but let's hope she can make it through the next few rounds but hey we do look incredible, here it even makes you look good Sophia haha."

" H-Hey what's that supposed to mean you wanna fight"

"No, no I'm not interested in being shoved in a closet haha"

me and Freya laughed at this joke the crowd around us made it weird, laughing so hard they all started to stare by the time we stopped the next theme was already announced. An Imaginary gang fighting someone hand to hand Lilly's was good, a blonde girl with purple eyes and a black facemask. Despite the facemask you could tell she had gone completely insane. her eyes were wide open and there was something in them that shouted I'M GOING TO KILL THIS KID HAHAHAAHAAHA. She did a 540 kick to the side of the head like she was trying to knock the brain out the other side of the head. Graphic I know.

But this seemed like something Lilly knew well. Maybe because she had been in a lot of fights with her gang, her uniform was scuffed but you could make out the image clearly. It was a katana on fire.

This got her 1rst place. If it didn’t, I would've rioted. It was that good. The next few rounds were boring, some things you could tell Lilly didn't care about like a spider, a dog, a sword all on their own nothing else happening so she fell to 3rd place with 10 points.

If she got at least 2nd this round she would lock down the spot, so the next round was to draw a person from the audience, so she checked. It looked like she struggled choosing between me and Freya but then Nobuhiro Natsuo whispered something to her. and this made her decision easier.

when time was called Lilly had drawn me and Nobuhiro had drawn Freya. This won Lilly second and Nobuhiro first. Lilly gave a little smile to me and Freya. She had locked us our first joint project.

Freya teased me for coming in 2nd. She said" man even when Lily draws you, you're still second-rate" so I returned the favor.

" That's a lot of talk for someone who was crying on the bathroom floor like an hour ago" this seemed to shut her up for a bit then she said.

" Hey Sophia, I just thought of the perfect first story. I'll send you a draft later. I want you to edit it. You need a test also, this is Lilly's test. I wrote that story for her, my test now you need yours."

I eagerly accepted this task and was ready to put my heart and soul into it because this was my first time editing someone else's story. The ones I practiced with were old from middle school all horrible, but the edits made them tolerable.

Lilly had to draw a samurai beheading a horse charging at it. She put in little to no effort. It was still good, but it didn't earn her a point, but the leaderboard proved big for Lilly. As she had beat the one kill artist by one point, I think this was intentional. we went to buy some of Lilly's artwork and after that manga con was over for us at least we got one day tickets.

I took Lilly and Freya to pizza, my treat but then I remembered we left that poor woman in the closet. I feel bad for how I hit her even though she deserved it. I don't know why something just took me over and I couldn't stop until I realized that Freya was just sitting on the floor crying. That's when I finally gained control back.

I startled Freya when I said " Freya! we left the body in the closet, what do we do?" she jumped back and spoke.

" Oh, crap if she reports back or gets found I'll be in big trouble." and there goes Freya looking out for only herself. I'd be in trouble too then Lilly asked.

" Wait body you killed someone hahaha man you guys are more hardcore than me I've never killed before. Although I almost di- never mind." I can’t tell Sophia about tachima because it would crush her.

" Yeah, If I knew you were in a gang, I would've asked for your help in finding Freya. haha but never mind what?"

" Jeez Sophia you're so dense when someone says never mind, you're not supposed to ask more. And I would've been fine without your help. I would've gotten up and pummeled her if you hadn't come so really you ruined everything. Don't think you did anything major today because I’m not thanking you for anything."

" Well, I wouldn't expect a thank you from my rival now, would I?"

" W-well good"

" I've always wanted to ask why you're rivals; you seem like you could be best friends. "

"Well, it goes back to a couple of days before you came to Lilly. Freya came from America and as soon as she got here, she tried to steal all my popularity."

" Wow that's a rather shallow reason doesn’t you think? I mean my rival was the girl I drew. That was her when she beat our previous leader Taiji. So, I tried next but was defeated quickly so I trained till I went to challenge her again."

"After my defeat she had claimed herself as leader and I couldn't let that slide. So, I formed a small resistance with me and a few friends. This is the reason I moved here. when this resistance group ran in, they were ready and the strongest officers were on the front lines ready to fight."

"It turns out the vice-captain of the resistance group was a spy. Since they knew all our plans, we were no match and a few gave up, but I fought till I was knocked out. I was tied up and carried to the leader when I woke up, and my friends were tied to the walls, and I had to fight the top officers. For each I defeated the weakest friend left would join me."

" Waiting tied to the walls sounds more like a cult than a gang."

"Yeah, it does, so I fought and defeated the first 4. they were no problem but the bottom 3 were very hard. My friends would act as shields when I needed to recover so I managed those too."

"You had really good friends back in America no one I knew would do that for me"

"But when it was time to fight the leader, I was the last one left. I was already heavily injured so when we were fighting, she was just push kicking me. But I was barely able to withstand those, but I had trained her attack patterns, so I countered the kick, flipped her and punched her in the face. One for every friend her soldiers had beat then 2 for Taiji but I didn't stop until one of my friends had to pull me away."

wow sounds like what happened today almost except I passed her to Freya before I beat her too badly.

" She was so injured that she was rushed to the hospital. And is now in a coma. I moved to escape that, my horrible past. I'm the gang leader but I'm more like a shadow leader with puppets to lead for me. "

"So why are you telling us this?"

"Well, I want to be completely transparent with you guys. It wasn't easy acting so nice all the time."

"Well then I should be transparent too."

"Hm? Freya?"

" The vlog company was a corrupt organization. The big boss or uncle paid only young girls because he was a pervert. He wanted us to show him our feet. He also loved when we ignored it and " played hard to get."

" Wow total creep just like tachima"

" He wasn't a creep why do you guys keep saying that"

wow Sophia is stuck in the twilight zone better to not forcefully eject her like Freya would. I hope she just continues the story.

" Of course, I never did show him, I have my pride. but then when we were bought out by the Asmarai organization there were more like him. Who was more forceful, so I stole 10k and left America."

"10k let’s translate into yen1,387,430.00 yen Wow! That’s a lot, you're both so interesting compared to me. I was born here and still live here. I took some judo when I was 5 but that's it."

"Hm Sophia? Freya? Lilly?"

"Ms. Bellor's?"

wow what a coincidence running into you well it's still in planning but Sophia, you said you wanted to do kendo well we'll have it next year so be prepared.

"Really you will yes it seems so fun I've wanted to train with something like a sword at least"

" Really! that's great well I've got to run but see you soon"

Well, what do we do? We got a publication spot "Freya do you even have a story ready?!"

" Yeah, yeah calm down kay I’ve got a story better than the one I showed both of you so don't worry "

"Sophia let's meet at the manga museum in a week you show your edited version to me and Lilly and If It's not good I'll kick you off the team okay"

" Yeah, sure challenge accepted" I don't know why but at that moment it felt like something shifted in the world. like the red string of fate had been tangled.

hm? What the hell is this? Where am I? What happened to my gang?