At long last, the morning comes barging inside the room and greets me with arrays of light, illuminating the piles of crumpled sheets cradle around my arms.
It is the same-hard-bound manga under the pen name of Nick. Upon looking at the account of his anime drawn profile, there are dozens of stories he has sketched that have their unique styles. Each of his artwork grabs my interest. And in an instant, I have fallen in love with his drawings and mangas.
It is because of the genre of his stories. Every manga he has drawn is all about romance and love that diverges from the genre of mine.
But don't get the erroneous idea of my actions! I still hate him for copying my work without asking for permission!
His work is not that exceptional. But I have to concede that he beautifully makes everything with passion and sheer dedication for him to come up this far. It almost reminds me of the time that I have tried exploring various concepts and end up taking an interest in gores and carnage. It is one of the most embarrassing moment of my life that shapes my recent novels.
I open the gate of my classroom and immediately look for my best friend-Roxanne, to narrate the tale about this sublime yet mimesis of my work.
"Roxanne, I have grand news for you!" I shout, not minding the rest of my classmates busy in their agendas.
The people inside the room do not care about anything you do as long as you don't interrupt them. You could find them fiddling with their phones, reading a book, listening to music, and chitchatting with each other. They have nothing else to do but to squander their precious time while waiting for our sensei (Sensei is the Japanese word for "teacher").
And I include myself from the majority.
I see Roxanne's back, sitting motionless with her head, gazing at the table chair. It is as if she is reading a thing of some sort, which is unusual for her to do.
I creep at her flank, wanting to surprise her. But at that moment, my eyes broaden as I discern the same manga she is flicking with focus.
She swings around and checks if our teacher has entered the room, but only to catch me staring menacingly at her oafish face.
"Oh my god, you scared me!" Roxanne jerks from her seat as she feels flabbergast to see me standing at her side. "Don't squirm on me like that!"
"I couldn't help it~," I speak unevenly like a child and feel amuse from the expression she has shown to me.
Roxanne shrugs off my comment and resumes reading the comics. She slightly leans towards me, showing the drawings and dialogues of the story.
"I never knew your novel has a manga adaptation?" Roxy tilts her head confusingly and waits for my response. "This manga has a decent art style, don't you think?"
"I do not have any sponsors, remember?"
"Well, I thought you secretly hid it to surprise me," Roxanne retorts while skimming down the manga, trying to find the page that she wishes me to see.
"Can you recall what happened to Grey?" (Grey Turner is the main protagonist of the Light Novel that Yuki created.)
"Yes," I answer.
"I've noticed that at the start of his story, his mother died in that apocalypse. Nick, or the mangaka, had to sketch the mother's death with blood spilling everywhere on the wall. Can't you believe it?!" Roxanne could hardly contain her excitement as she points out the specific sheet of that scene from my book. "It told all the emotions needed like the actual light novel!"
I scan through the drawings and sketch, criticising every bit of detail of my story he imitates. It turns out that Nick, or the mangaka, has included all the parts of my plot. He has also written the dialogues said from my story, bringing powerful emotions from the characters.
"It's hard to deny that," I remark and second Roxanne's claim. "But that does not mean I approve of this parroting! Besides, my works have copyrights and grant me the power to sue these people!"
"But would you, Yuki?" Roxanne locks her eyes on me as if she already knows my answer.
"No," I mutter, accepting my defeat.
I sit on the chair and silently turn the pages, continuing to read where I have left this morning.
"There is nothing much that we can do other than wait for any response from the mangaka," Roxanne adds, still flicking through the fifty-page comic book. "As I have said earlier, Nick included your name at the bottom left of the cover. He also mentioned that if you want to contact him directly, then you should send him a message through that number-which you already did, I presume?"
I nod in acknowledgement as I have completed the task Roxanne mentioned the first time seeing this comic book.
Soon, the bell's chime notifies the schoolyards at twelve-noon, where the sun has risen to the highest. The classroom doors come crashing outwards, with the students dashing outside, racing straight towards the cafeteria.
I cannot blame them for their actions. The goodies in the canteen they are selling have their limited edition meal pack that could save a student's allowance. The numbers are not much to note, but it is all that's left for our cafe.
Roxanne and I always prepare our lunch at home, making the time well- spent efficiently gossiping about divergent topics about the world, chiefly for my novels. I would explain some concepts that I have to think of while she rants about what is happening inside her house-a win-win situation for both of us.
But today is a special occasion. The Mangaka-Nick gives me a reply which is the priority of our conversation right now.
"What did he mail?" Roxanne leans her head to my cellphone and looks like an elderly girl, trying to make sense out of the gadget.
"Beats me,"
I abruptly turn on my laptop and open the account and find a red marker on top of my envelope icon. Upon clicking on the link, I greet a tedious paragraph, with the three unfinished sketches below the lines.
"Is he mocking us or what?" I want to jab my screen after reading the first few sentences of his message.
"For now, let's just see what he sent to us."
Accepting Roxanne's proposal, the two of us finally reads the entire email.
{ "Hi, Yuki! I received many spam emails recently, and I still doubt this is the official author's email, but whatever! I am glad you reached out to me because I was trying desperately to look for your email address. Unfortunately, I am not good with technologies and could not find you for the past year. Please accept my humble apologies, particularly on adapting your Light Novel "Crime Legacy" and "Zombis" as mangas under my name. If, by chance, you are the certified author of these works and live in the district of Shirakawa, Koto City, Tokyo, Japan-next to the international school, please meet me there whenever you are free! If you aren't around Tokyo, Japan, then please send me a picture of you and your hard-bound books as a reference! I will send you mine once you accept my offer. Thank you and have a nice day!"}
"International school…" Roxanne pauses for a second, trying to digest whatever she has read from the mail. "That's our school! He is talking about our school!"
"Does that mean this guy may be one of our students or even a classmate?"
Thousands of question marks appear above our head, clouding our judgement after rereading the entire letter once again.
"There's no mistaking it," Roxanne concludes her statement while nodding to herself. "It must be it."
"How are we sure that he's a student?" I ask, uncertain about that piece of information Nick has sent us.
"Then what are the odds that he's just a stranger that lives near the dorms of our school? "
"Well, if you think of it that way, then you might be correct." I finally realise her reasons, making sense out of the occurrence.
{We can meet later in the afternoon, around 4:00 P.M. in the garden?} I hastily type a response and show it to Roxanne, almost shoving the appliance on her eyes..
"Yeah, send him that. And keep that phone out from my face!" Roxanne waves her hand and pushes the smartphone away
Upon getting her approval at once, I press the send button and watch the mail with elegant-like wings hovering inside a white window. Once the site confirms the message is out, we gobble up our meals and return to our classrooms while waiting for the next bell to ring.
After holding back for three consecutive hours, I discern the bell sirening our break once more, suspending all the present classes. Every student-like what we have seen from the cafeteria comes running across the hall and exits the buzzing hallway. Roxanne and I follow suit but take a sharp turn on the street where we could meet the mysterious man named Nick.
Ten minutes have passed, yet nobody arrives at the spot we have designated. Even after climbing on the second-level platform to perceive the entire area, we never see a guy that could have looked like a Nick to our eyes.
We do not even know what a man with the name "Nick" would look like on the outside.
We may interact with a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent that wants us dead because of our novel. My story might have pissed off some terrorists and bounty hunters. Thus, the FBI is already making their moves to protect us.
If that is not the case, I do not know what that guy-Nick wants us to do.
Suddenly, something vibrates inside my right pocket. It is my phone waiting for that mangaka's message for us.
"Speak of the devil," I remark, and show the prompt mail sent by the same name we have been waiting for the past ten minutes.
{Please meet me inside the classroom, Class 1-A. I am really sorry for the sudden change of locations. I cannot handle the crowd well like a normal person}
Another buzz follows by after sending the first text message.
{And I am also in the middle of drawing a scene from your Light Novel. I wanted to ask you about something because there is a scene that I do not understand. Thanks!}
"That bastard. I swear I will punch him in the face if I have the chance," I mutter to myself while rolling up my sleeves, preparing ourselves for a fight of our lifetime.