One-Shot Manga

Kritvik Bhatt

“Whoaaaa!”

“Damn…”

Our eyes widened and our mouths opened as we looked at what lay in front of us. We both stood at the entry gate, glaring inside at the grand park filled with sheds and booths of colorful stuff beneath the bright sunrays. A large crowd of people were walking here and there, smiling and laughing and having fun. At the left, some booths ahead, was a cosplayer with pink hair, tight white shirt, and a pair of pants. She, for some reason, had an eyepatch on. There was also a man in a dark blue superhero suit.

Both of us were turning our heads right and left differently, for some reason.

“No doubt—this is great!” I said in amusement.

“Really,” She replied back.

I then turned to my left at her and said, “You remember your wishlist?”

“Sure I do,” She replied back with a smile.

I then turned my head to the front and said, “The first one was a t-shirt, maybe. Let’s begin with that.”

She suddenly pointed her right hand to a booth at the right. “See, she’s a really famous artist who worked on so many Jenshin one-shots!”

I turned my head to my right and looked at a booth where a middle-aged Japanese woman in a casual dark magenta top and a black pair of leggings sat, smiling at an Indian guy who was getting a copy of a manga from her hands.

“Damn, she looks… old.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Whatever.” She then turned her head to me and said, “Now we first gotta buy a Jenshin one-shot from somewhere and then get it signed!”

“Damn, okay. Let’s get the manga signed first, because we don’t know when she’ll get up.”

“Yeah yeah, let’s get in.” She turned her head to the front and started to walk in.

We, first of all, walked toward a booth of clothes, which had some anime characters on its t-shirts and hoodies, with some young guys showing and folding the t-shirts to the crowd that surrounded that stall. It was right at the front, man—just some steps away, facing straight at the entrance.

Then she suddenly turned left. “No. Manga first.” We walked from the front of that wide stall, turned right, and then entered an alley of booths. On our left was a little square booth of key-chains, earrings, and other little stuff like that. Then, on both our right and left were booths of anime posters, especially some fantasy game ones, with girls in fantastical clothes on them. I turned my head to my right to look at them, and then turned my head left.

“Damn…”

“Those posters are really cool,” She said, looking in the same direction as me. “But their quality is really bad, you see.”

“How do you know?”

“Generally it is.” She then turned her head to the next booth on our right. It was another giant rectangular. There were people in some black clothes standing on the corners, maybe guarding it or some stuff. It had a lot of shelves in it, touching the top. And, man, it was filled with people so much there was not even an inch where we could step in. A couple of people were already waiting outside.

“Damn, it’s so crowded.”

“Really,” She replied. “It’s a manga store, but I don’t really want to get inside with so many people around me.”

I smiled. “Obviously.”

She then turned her head to the front and said, “Well, let’s find some other manga stores. There must be some more around here.”

I turned my head to my front too and continued to walk beside her. “By the way, there must be a lot of one-shots, right? Which one have you decided on?”

“Well, I have not really decided. I’d choose the best one among what they have, you see.”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

***

“Damn, man!”

“I can’t believe it too!”

Both of us had our heads toward each other as we walked from between the booths.

“Like, no one had Jenshin one-shots!” She said, her eyes wide open in shock. She turned her head to the front and commented, “All of them were either smaller stalls or only had the main series! Like, who buys volumes of the main series! You need thirty different volumes! And, it’s available on the internet illegally for free!”

“Yeah! It’s India, man! We’re not kids of Ambani who get thousands as their pocket-money!”

“Really!” She shook her head. “They have no business sense at all, you see.”

“No doubt,” I turned my head to the front. “Let’s go to that crowded stall again, man.”

“Yeah yeah. Obviously.”

We continued to walk for some time to the front. The sun was still on top of our heads. After all, it had not even been a complete hour. We turned left in the middle of the crowd and walked in the same alley in the same direction like we did, and as we looked at the booth from the edge, we looked at the dozens of people who stood in front of it, for some reason. It was like there had been some sort of fight inside, but people were just standing there peacefully, scrolling their social media, some talked, and just waiting peacefully.

“Damn…”

Her lips turned into a smile as she turned her head to her left at me. “Well, I guess we gotta wait there.”

I smiled and shook my head. “Let’s get there after a couple of hours, man. This crowd would surely go away in some hours.”

“What if that manga artist goes away before this crowd?” She said.

I turned my head to her.

She tightened her lips, trying to convince me to get in. She then jerked her head in that direction, maybe trying to say something like ‘let’s go there’ or ‘come on’.

“Tch. Okay, man.”

“Yay!”

We both turned to the front and walked toward that crowd.

“But you’ll be going in alone, man. I won’t come in with you,” I told her.

“No. I’m not going there alone,” She sternly replied as we stood in the line in front of the booth.

“Huh? Why?” I asked her.

“Because I’m scared.”

I frowned at her. “What?”

“Y-Yeah,” She said. “And, you need to be there. I would need to ask you which one I should choose, you see.”

I sighed, “Huff. Okay.” I turned my head to the front at all those people who were standing there, and then turned my eyes to my left at a little square booth with some metal posters of fantasy anime characters with a dark black background. There were also other normal posters hung beside them and on the table in front of the guy, who was looking toward our booth with his hands folded as he sat in front of his own booth. He then turned his head leftward, for some reason. I turned my eyes to the front again. I thought, “Maybe I’d like to get one metal poster too.”

Suddenly, Sana nudged my right shoulder.

I turned my head to her.

“You see, I’d like a metal poster too,” She commented as she pointed her finger to the left at the booth where I was just looking.

I chuckled. “I was just thinking about that too, for some reason.”

She smiled. “Well, I know. I saw you glaring there.”

“Damn. Are you stalking me or something?”

“Does your house have no mirrors?”

“Huh?” I frowned.

“Like, if you had ever looked at your face in a mirror, I don’t really think you’d have ever assumed something like that, you see.”

I chuckled. “Damn, man. Okay.” I turned my head to the front.

“Anyway, would you buy a manga too?” She turned to her right at the people and the bookshelf behind them.

“Obviously—no doubt. It’s better if we buy different one-shots, because we can just borrow from each other later on.”

“Yeah.”

For a moment, we fell silent as I continued to look at the guy at the front, and Sana was glaring at the books from between those people walking slowly, pushing each other at each step. She suddenly chuckled, and with a smile, nudged my elbow again.

I turned to her again.

“Look at that guy.”

I turned my head to the front where her eyes were looking.

“Doesn’t he look like the protagonist of the new superhero anime series?”

I frowned. “Huh? Who?”

“The one behind the pink girl,” She said, both of us glaring inside.

I suddenly smiled and chuckled. “For some reason, yeah.”

She then turned to me and said, “He should have cosplayed that character, you see. He’d look perfect.”

“Yeah, man. But he might not have noticed it, maybe, or he’s not interested.”

“Yeah yeah,” She turned her head to the front.

I too turned my head to the front.

“Anyway, you should have cosplayed someone too, you see.”

“Huh? Me?” I frowned again as I looked at her.

“Yeah.”

“Man, really?”

“Yeah,” She repeated as she turned to me. “Maybe some introverted character would fit nicely on you, you see.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe, man. But… it’s scary to put on a cartoon costume and walk in public, for some reason.”

“It’d have been better, since it’d have added to your shy character.”

“… Damn.”

***

“Take this one for me!” I yelled at her.

“But I’m taking this one, K!” She yelled back.

Both of us were in the middle of a narrow alley filled with people all around. About two people could stand there at one time, and there were exactly two queues of people, for some reason. People were walking on my left, pushing through my shoulder, obviously.

“We both decided that we’d buy different mangas. And apparently, we both wanted the same one.”

“Okay. Let’s find someone else. If you find something better, I take this, if I find something better, you take it. Fine?”

“Uh, okay,” I calmly replied as I moved my right arm up to scratch the back of my head, which I had to tilt frontward because the bookshelf was just on my side. I then turned my head to my right, looking at the other manga volumes—all with white backgrounds, for some reason, and some cute anime girl in fantastical clothes posing in front of it, with the white and blue logo of Jenshin Impact on top center.

There were some more people standing in front of the same bookshelf on my back too, man. As I was scanning the books from up to down, I suddenly frowned at a particular volume. It was right beside her tummy, man. I moved my right hand toward there, carefully took the volume out such that I would not touch her and not seem like a stalker with a weird fetish, pulled it out from the middle of all those volumes, and then moved it to me.

The volume had a teen anime girl in purple clothes and a hat, smiling. The title read—‘Jenshin: The World Impact, Sachiko’s Story’.

I frowned as I looked at it. “Man, I guess I’m gonna just get this one.”

Sana turned her head to her right at me and looked at the cover. “Cool. I really wanna read that too, you see.” She smiled as she turned to me. “Even if you’re not gonna enjoy it, I sure will.”

I smiled. “Yeah. After all, you’re obsessed with this game.”

“Really,” She agreed as she turned to my front and we both started to get from between those dudes—one of them crouched down on our right and the other just standing in front of the shelf on our left. There were others too that we had to pass, obviously.

***

“Yeah, sensei, I really love your drawings,” She said in English to that woman.

“Oh, soukka,” She nodded—her head turned down to her desk as she signed the volume with her black permanent marker, the other one closed just beside the first one. She then closed the manga, took both of them up, and then raised both of them to Sana. I just stood on her right, smiling as I heard both of them talking.

“Thank you,” She said with a smile as she took the books from her.

“Thank you,” I repeated.

She nodded. “Arigato gozaimas!”

We both turned back and started to walk away from her stall. As we walked a couple of steps, she sighed out from her mouth. “Huff!”

I smiled as I turned to my right at her. “What?”

She turned to me and smiled. “Finally, I got a signed copy of a Jenshin one-shot.”

“Great for us, man.”

“Really.” She turned her head to the front. “Well, now, we should find some tees for us.”

“What about some matching t-shirts?” I asked her with a smile as I turned my head to the front.

“Yeah!”