Chapter 8 | Date at Comiket, His True Identity

By noon the next day, my fever had gone down completely.

Rika stayed overnight in an empty room.

Early afternoon on the 26th.

In my living room.

“Thank you so much for everything.”

I sat down at the table and bowed.

She made me curry udon for lunch, and it was really delicious.

“No, no, you’re welcome.”

Rika smiles, collects the plates, and turns to go to the kitchen.

“I’ll help you, too!”

“Really? Then… um, why don’t we do it together?”

“Yes!”

We stand in the kitchen side by side.

Rika washes the dishes and I wipe them with a dish towel.

“Standing like this, we look like a married couple.”

“Nya……!”

Rika almost drops the plate she was holding.

Watch out!

“Woah!”

Pasch…!

…Safe. I was able to retrieve the plate before it broke.

“I’m sorry…”

“No, it’s okay. But what’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s because you said weird things!”

I did say some strange things even though we are not really going out.

Hmmm, reflection…

Rika, on the other hand, was bright red up to her ears and mumbled something small, “A married couple~……♡.”

She is washing the dishes while humming a tune.

……Suddenly I said, with an apologetic tone, something like this.

“Hey, Rika, I want to thank you.”

“Thank you?”

I took the plate from Rika.

“Yes. Thank you. From Christmas Eve to today, I’ve been taken care of a lot. So I want to do something for you.”

Not only did she cheer me up when I was down, she even took care of me when I caught a cold.

As you can imagine, I felt guilty for not doing something for her.

“If so…”

Rika twists the faucet to turn off the water.

“I want to go on a date…”

“So, a date oh…?

What do you mean by a date… that kind of date?

The kind men and women do… but we’re not even dating.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong! It’s not a date, it’s just the two of us going out together!”

“Oh, I see. Just the two of us?”

“Yes, that’s right. Just the two of us, a man and a woman.”

Oh, it’s not a date, is it?

Well, that’s right.

No one would seriously date someone like me… haha.

“Yeah, okay.”

“…yay, it’s a date ♡ Shin-chan, yay, yay~♡”

“What was that?”

“It’s nothing!”

After a while…

Rika peeled an apple for me, and we were eating it in the living room.

“When are we going out?”

“I think the day after tomorrow.”

The 28th, huh?

“Oh, sorry. I have a lot of plans for the end of the year.”

“Oh, like a family vacation?”

“No, I’m going to Comiket.”

“Comiket?”

It’s a big doujin event that takes place at the end of the year.

“You’re going to Comiket?”

Rika leans forward with her hands on the table.

“Uh, yeah. We go every year.”

“Heh…! That’s great~”

Rika’s eyes are sparkling.

…Hey, what’s that reaction?

“Do you want to go too… by any chance?”

“Yeah! I’ve always wanted to go to Comiket~”

“Heh… surprising. I thought Rika wouldn’t be interested in this kind of event. ……”

I thought she was a gal and far away from two-dimensional hobbies.

“If you’re interested in Comiket, would you like to go…?”

“I’m going! I did it!”

Rika clenched her fists and said with a smile.

“Then we’ll have to start lining up early in the morning!”

She seems to know quite a bit about Comiket…

Maybe she likes 2-D or something like that…?

Ha, no way, a gal?

“I’m sorry. Can we go at noon?”

“Sure, but if you don’t go to Comiket in the morning, you won’t be able to buy any doujinshis, you know?”

Oh, I see.

Rika must have misunderstood.

She seems to think that I am a regular participant.

“Well… that’s true, but the reason I’m participating is that I’m selling doujinshis at Comiket.”

“What? You’re selling doujinshi?”

Eh, what are you surprised about…?

“You mean you’re a participant in the circle?”

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

“Oh, my God…!”

Shhhh! Rika shakes my hand.

Hyah! A beautiful girl is holding my hand!

Oh, soft…!

“Shin-chan, you make and sell doujinshi!”

“Uh, yeah… just a bit.”

“Huh…! That’s amazing! I admire you so much~♡”

Eh, eh… I wonder if it’s something to admire.

There are a lot of people other than me who sells them…

I’m not the only one special, but…

“You know, in anime, there are times when people make and sell doujinshi together, right? I’ve always wanted to do something like that… so I think it’s awesome that Shin-chan is really doing it!”

“Oh, thanks… you watch anime?”

“I do! I watch them a lot!”

“Wow, I didn’t expect that… What kind of anime?”

“Recently, Digimas anime was really good!”

Digimas is the most famous light novel in Japan today.

Recently, an anime has been broadcasted, and a movie version is scheduled to be aired next year.

“I’ve heard that Digimas is great! Which girl do you like?”

“Chobi, the heroine, of course! What about Shin-chan?”

“I love Chobi, too! Girls who are single-minded are so cute!”

“I know!”

We talked about Digimas for a while.

We talked about which character was our favorite, which development was the best, etc. We lost track of time.

Oh, how fun…

I can’t believe that I can talk about anime with my classmates like this…

Soon after.

“I’m going to participate in a circle on the 28th, so I’ll be pretty busy from morning till noon. So if we go out, it will be from noon…”

Then Rika said something like this.

“Hey, if you don’t mind, can I help you sell Shin-chan’s doujinshis?”

“Eh!? That’s… bad.”

“No! Come on! Let me do it! I’ve always wanted to sell doujinshis at Comiket!”

Rika’s eyes are sparkling.

She must be quite the geek.

But she didn’t look like she was lying, and I was happy to have made an otaku friend.

“Really, will you help me?”

“Of course! I mean, please!”

“I see… then, please do.”

And so it was decided that Rika and I would participate in Comiket.

Early morning on the 28th.

In front of my apartment.

“Hey… Shin-chan? You’re kidding, right…?”

Rika, who is overdressed, murmurs in amazement.

“What’s wrong?”

“This pile of cardboard!”

Pointing at a pile of cardboard boxes with about 10 boxes, Rika raises her voice.

“What is this?”

“Eh, it’s a box containing doujinshi.”

“Wait! How many books are there!?”

“A thousand books.”

“A thousand…”

Rika looks at me with a shocked expression.

What? Did I do something wrong?

“Shin-chan, there’s something wrong.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The number of doujinshi books!”

Something’s wrong… Oh, so that’s what’s wrong.

“You mean there aren’t enough? Don’t worry, we mailed them to the venue, and there are still about 2,000 copies left. These are the ones for selling as a set.”

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Rika’s raised her voice again.

“Three thousand books! You’re printing too many!”

Oh, she wasn’t mad at the lesser one…

“Can I ask you something? At doujin shows, if you are not a famous circle, you will hardly sell at all.”

Rika put her hands on her hips and said with a knowing look on her face.

“A small circle can sell, at best, 10 books a day, maybe 50 if they’re lucky, and rarely triple-digit sales.”

“You know a lot about this.”

“Well, I’ve never participated, but I’m knowledgeable.”

Is it like being an amateur virgin ……?

“That’s, what, 3,000 copies? Which very famous circle is this? If we print this many copies, we’ll have too much stock and we’ll go bankrupt!”

“You’re worried about us? Thanks!”

“Ugu… stop smiling like that. It’s heartbreaking.”

I wonder if it’s that creepy~…

I guess it’s true…

“I’m sure you don’t have to worry about it. Last year we printed 5,000 copies and sold out.”

“Wa!”

And that’s when it happened.

“Oooh, Shinji-kun!”

A car comes running down the street and stops in front of me.

“Li, a limousine!”

Rika was surprised to see a black limousine stop next to her.

A large man wearing sunglasses came out of the limousine.

“T-Terminator!?”

A strong man who looks like the Terminator from a Western movie comes down the stairs, smiling and waving.

“Good morning. I’m looking forward to working with you again today.”

I bow my head, and the Terminator smiles at me.

“Yes, yes, yes! What’s up, Shinji-kun, who’s that?”

“Oh, this is my friend Rika. She’s going to help me sell.”

“That’s great! I’m Saburo! Nice to meet you, Rika-chan!”

Saburo, the Terminator, shook Rika’s hand and shook it vigorously.

“Huh?”

“Oh, we don’t have a lot of time. Let’s hurry!”

“Oh-sa!”

Terminator lifted the cardboard with both hands and put it in the limousine.

“Come on, Rika. Get in!”

“What?”

The limousine departed and arrived near the International Exhibition Hall within a few minutes.

He unloaded 10 boxes of cardboard boxes and we carried them to the venue using a folding cart.

“What? We are not by the wall!”

The wall of the circle hall is our space.

“Oh, everyone! Good morning!”

I greeted the staff gathered there.

“Oh, Rika. Is it okay if we greet them later? I have to set up.”

“Huh? What? What?”

I work with the others to lay out a rug on the table and make a pile of doujinshis.

Meanwhile, people were gathering in droves.

And then, I went to…

“What’s with this long line?”

In no time at all, a line of customers formed in front of our circle.

The line continued to the outside of the closed doors.

“Shi-chan…? Oh, what are you…?”

“Oh, I just write doujinshi as a hobby.”

“It’s beyond the level of a hobby! It’s as if you are completely wall-circle ……a very popular circle!” [TLN: Wall circle refers to big circles because their spots are near the wall for many reasons, but mainly for space]

Then Saburo-san, who was passing by, said to Rika with a puzzled look on his face.

“Shinji-kun’s circle [Rika] is the most famous circle in Japan, and he is the owner of the circle who is famous as an artist with a god-like reputation, you know?”

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