CHAPTER 665: CHAPTER 664: KUBO THE GREAT GOD PAYS A VISIT

"Never compromise with editors!"

Two high school manga artists seeking Xia Yu to serve as their culinary guide declared resolutely.

Xia Yu laughed, "Last time, your third work got delayed due to your fixation on creating a definitive culinary manga, almost causing you to miss the Tezuka Award. Fortunately, you found your way back in time and stuck to your original concept."

He looked leisurely at the two, waiting to see their reactions.

Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku, one avoided eye contact, the other adjusted his glasses.

"Where is this sudden passion for drawing gourmet manga coming from again, and why even more fervently than before?" he wondered.

Impulses always have a reason.

The two hemmed and hawed until Mashiro Takumi took out his phone with a resigned look, pointed at the screen, showed it to Xia Yu in the kitchen, and scrolled through the content.

"Pfft!"

"Turn it off! Turn it off!"

As a few familiar storyboard sketches flashed by, Xia Yu’s face turned pale, and with a slam, his hands pressed against the glass between the kitchen and the bar, showing signs of turning dark.

These were the increasingly popular Sapporo dojinshi of recent days.

Moreover, there’s been a second volume that led to strange looks from Zhu Qing and friends upon his return to Tokyo these past few days, and Tiqie Helinai had vanished as if evading him.

"Okay, okay!"

Sensing the oppressive aura of the darkening shop owner, Mashiro Takumi hurriedly put his phone away.

It took quite a while for Xia Yu to regain his composure, and he stood arms crossed at the window, watching them.

"All because of this?"

"Er..." carefully observing Xia Yu’s reaction, Takagi Shuutoku said, "Taking advantage of the Sapporo event’s popularity, creating a culinary manga now could quickly go viral. It’s an unbeatable shortcut!"

Xia Yu understood.

Ha!

He laughed inwardly; ’Bai Muying,’ an artist who had been only known within niche circles, became famous overnight due to the Sapporo event dojinshi, even gaining a reputation abroad, surpassing many regular Jump manga artists.

Popularity, reputation!

Not just manga artists, but in other fields too, like novels and games within the ACG community, popularity means money. Putting it artistically, a higher popularity means having many dedicated fans.

"And furthermore..." Mashiro Takumi’s eyes sparkled.

"And what else?"

"If our manga works, with Chef Xia lending us a collaboration signature, even if it’s not serialized in Jump, it has the potential to become a super-popular national craze... it might even become a classic, a national treasure manga!"

The two high school manga artists’ eyes conveyed their strong hopes.

Xia Yu laughed.

It seems everyone wants to take the shortcut to instant fame. He didn’t blame Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku for thinking this way. If adults couldn’t resist the temptation, how could high school students?

He had some understanding of the manga industry.

Just like ’Food War Spirit,’ its original manga was a collaborative effort; Futian You Dou wrote the story, including the plot and dialogues, while Sakai Tosh, formerly a creator of 18+ adult comics, redeemed himself as the illustrator.

Then, no gourmet manga could do without a professional culinary researcher providing food concepts specific to the scenes.

Otherwise, how much information would a group of reclusive manga artists need to gather to conceptualize all the food to be presented by the characters? It would be too exhausting if that took away from fully committing to story creation and illustration.

If Xia Yu agreed, a future manga work by the two might look like this:

Work—"XXXXX".

Created by Takagi Shuutoku, Illustrated by Mashiro Takumi, Assisted by Xia Yu.

Regardless of the quality of the comic book, it’s easy to imagine that as soon as Xia Yu’s name appears in the work’s introduction, a buzz and debate will undeniably ensue. As for whether it’s negative or positive, who knows?

Similar to celebrities endorsing ads, Xia Yu was very cautious internally.

Just as Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku were intently watching him, waiting for a response, THUD!

From the direction of the door, there was a knocking sound.

Xia Family’s store hadn’t resumed normal operations yet, and the barrier outside clearly told outsiders, no visitors!

The knocking sound meant it was either an intrusive diner or an esteemed guest.

He looked up and swept his gaze around.

"Yo—" greeting.

Indeed, it was an esteemed guest, Neon Department Minister Shinohara Shigetaro, leading a middle-aged man and a young man into the small shop.

The middle-aged man and young man looked around, while Shinohara just plopped himself down at the bar, "Tea, please!"

"Today you must fire up the stove to treat me! I’ve brought you a high-profile guest!" he said pompously.

"I am Kubo Ryunosuke." The middle-aged man approached the bar, slightly bowed to Xia Yu, who was behind the window, Xia Yu returned the gesture, proceeding to look at the unremarkable middle-aged man, wearing glasses, a quintessential next-door uncle dressed in a slightly misshapen polo shirt, with uncombed hair covering the ears, and evident dark circles behind his glasses suggesting he was a chronic night worker.

THUD!

There was the sound of a stool falling nearby.

"Mr. Kubo!!"

A voice trembled with excitement.

Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku, turned into fans and promptly bowed at ninety degrees.

"Kubo Ryunosuke, this name sounds somewhat familiar." Behind the window, Xia Yu also slightly frowned, seeing no reaction from him, that young man who came in a white shirt and jeans, curiosity flashing in his eyes said, "Chef Xia, you don’t know Mr. Kubo?"

Xia Yu scratched his face, embarrassed.

Shinohara Shigetaro also looked at him surprised, "Haven’t you read ’Bleach’? Mr. Kubo here is the author!"

Xia Yu suddenly realized, "So you are that..."

This "Bleach" not that "Bleach".

When Xia Yu had just arrived, he saw classmates circulating Jump magazine, discussing "Bleach" and such, thinking it was exactly the same work, but after saving his lunch money to buy a magazine, he realized it was vastly different.

Different authors.

Though the theme was similar, the content was completely different.

However, in terms of popularity and fame, this "Bleach" was not inferior to the other "Bleach," so no wonder that Kubo Ryunosuke, this manga artist, had left Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku so starstruck and reverent.

Shaking off these thoughts, Xia Yu looked again at this uncle, Kubo Ryunosuke, with a subtle, peculiar smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

He suddenly thought of a meme about the author of the construction worker manga "Bleach."

It was said that when a picture of Mr. Kubo leading a team and this Mr. Kubo Ryunosuke’s image were merged for jokes, most fans would be collectively baffled. Who was who?

Kubo Ryunosuke sat down.

Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku, however, stepped back, no matter how Xia Yu greeted them, the two didn’t dare to sit at the bar with the senior.

"Here you go—"

He handed out two cups of tea, Xia Yu looked at Shinohara under his eyebrows, his admiration sipping his tea, and at Kubo Ryunosuke, who, incidentally, this prominent figure in the manga world was also looking at him, "It’s quite presumptuous to visit like this, but I tried contacting you two days ago. I couldn’t wait any longer, so I asked Minister Shinohara to bring me here..."

"I’ll get straight to the point!"

"I hope, Chef Xia, that you can join my creative team. I’m currently envisioning a culinary manga, not just with fantastical food, but also with passion, young people striving for their dreams, battles, warmth..."

"Your professional culinary knowledge is exactly what my team lacks!"