I just want to quietly draw manga Chapter 360

Two days had passed.

Afternoon light filtered through the blinds in Haruki’s office. Haruki was busy with his usual drawings, papers spread across his desk, when a man entered the room and stopped a few steps inside.

The man was in his early thirties, maybe mid-thirties. He wore wire-frame glasses and a suit that looked professional.

“Haruki-san,” he said, his voice calm and direct. “There was a call from Chain Veil Publishing. An editor wants to meet you. He said he’s coming on behalf of their editor-in-chief.”

Haruki didn’t answer immediately. He finished the line he was drawing, lifted his pen, and only then looked up.

“Chain Veil?” he said. “Are they here to ask me to move from Echo Shroud to them?”

The man hesitated, adjusting his glasses. “They didn’t say. I asked directly, but they avoided the question.” He paused. “Which is why I think that’s exactly what they want. If they stated their intentions openly, we might refuse the meeting outright. So they kept it vague.”

Haruki studied him for a moment. Sakuma—that was his name. Shiori had hired him yesterday, and so far he’d been efficient. Polite, but direct. The kind of person who asked the right questions without wasting time.

“Should I arrange the meeting?” Sakuma asked.

Haruki leaned back slightly in his chair, thinking.

“Before that,” he said, “did you submit the Code Geass serialization to Echo Shroud?”

“This morning,” Sakuma confirmed.

Haruki nodded once. “Good.”

Sakuma shifted slightly, as if choosing his next words carefully. “Haruki-san, I think you should meet with Chain Veil. Even if you don’t plan to leave Echo Shroud.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Sakuma said, opening his leather folder and pulling out a single sheet of paper, “as you told me, your agreement with Echo Shroud allows three slots, plus one temporary slot when a series is ending and a new one is introduced. If they don’t make an exception, they can’t give you another permanent slot. That would put you at five slots, which would be around twenty-five percent of their lineup. They won’t allow that.”

He paused, then continued, “So for one of the two new manga you want to serialize, you’ll have to look for a different publishing house.”

Haruki set the paper back down. “Arrange the meeting. The sooner, the better. I want to start serializing Code Geass as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll handle it,” Sakuma said. “I’ll contact you once it’s scheduled.”

He left the office and closed the door behind him.

At Haruki’s house

“Ha, I finished first,” Kenta said, dropping his pencil onto the table with a satisfied grin.

A few seconds later, Noya set his pencil down more quietly.

“It’s not about speed,” Noya said. “You also have to be accurate.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kenta said. “You always say that.”

They both stood up and carried their pages over to Hayato.

Now Hayato solely drew JoJo manga, while Kenta and Noya had been working together for the past few months to finish Fullmetal early. JoJo already had several stockpiled chapters, enough that Hayato could handle it with Haruki’s help for the next six months without pressure.

They all knew Fullmetal was ending. The question now was who would move to the new project and who would stay behind to finish cleanup.

Hayato flipped through their pages slowly, his eyes moving back and forth between panels. He didn’t speak right away.

Kenta leaned closer. “My drawing’s better, right? If you don’t want to say it out loud, just blink or something. I’ll understand.”

Hayato didn’t look up. “Both of your drawings have improved. I can see the difference compared to a few months ago.”

“That doesn’t help,” Noya said, crossing his arms. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“I’m not avoiding it,” Hayato said calmly. “I just don’t think one of you is clearly better than the other.”

Noya frowned. “Then how are we supposed to decide who works on the new manga?”

Before Hayato could answer, the front door opened.

Haruki stepped inside, taking off his shoes and glancing toward the living room.

All three of them were gathered around Hayato’s desk. Papers were spread everywhere. The energy in the room felt tense.

He paused. “What are you guys doing?”

“We’re deciding who gets to work on the new manga,” Noya said.

“And we can’t decide,” Kenta added, his voice a little quieter than usual. “I think it should be me. Noya’s been on Fullmetal since the beginning. He should stay and finish it properly.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Noya shot back. “You worked on Fullmetal too. And when Natsume ended, you jumped straight into that. You were the most excited. This time it should be my turn.”

“It’s not the same thing,” Kenta said.

They started talking over each other, voices rising slightly.

Haruki raised his hand. “Stop. Both of you.”

They quieted down, though neither looked happy.

“You’ll both work on the new manga,” Haruki said. “Just not immediately. There’s some preparation involved, if everything goes according to plan.”

“What plan?” Noya asked.

“Evermark decided to serialize Code Geass as a manga,” Haruki said. “We’re starting early to help fund the studio.”

There was a brief silence.

Then Kenta and Noya spoke at the same time.

“I want to work on the new manga.”

Noya immediately turned to Kenta. “You’re always asking for spoilers. If you work on Code Geass, Haruki will have to tell you the entire ending.”

“You’ve asked for spoilers too,” Kenta protested. “We all have.”

“You ask more,” Noya said.

“There’s no rush,” Haruki said. “Code Geass will start serializing in November. The new manga won’t start until February at the earliest.”

That finally slowed them down.

Kenta crossed his arms. “Fine. I’ll work on Code Geass then.”

He glanced up at Haruki. “But you’ll give me spoilers, right?”

Haruki gave a small nod. The kind that reassured without actually promising anything, like a parent calming a child who was asking too many questions.

Kenta seemed satisfied with that.

The argument ended, at least for now.