"Manager, I'm heading out."
"Take care on your way."
After finishing his shift, Akira said goodbye to Kayo and left the bookstore.
On his way to Yoshinoya, he glanced at a vacant lot not far from the street. That was where the girl named Rin usually performed.
Come to think of it, he had not seen her for several days. He wondered what she was doing now.
The reason they had not met recently was simple. His work schedule had changed to 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, which conflicted with her performance time.
Of course, he had told her about the change beforehand, so there was no misunderstanding.
After all, they were only just acquaintances.
Previously, every night after work, he would stop by her performance spot and listen to a song before heading home.
At the same time, she would quietly wait until he arrived before singing her final song.
It had become one of his few small pleasures.
Unfortunately, that routine was now gone.
He sighed.
Better to focus on making money.
Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts aside. Before anything else, though, he needed to eat.
...
...
His current goal was to secure a serialization opportunity in Shonen Jump as soon as possible.
He had already mailed out Emiya Kiritsugu the previous day, and tonight he needed to begin work on Fate/stay night without delay.
Compared to Emiya Kiritsugu, adapting Fate/stay night was far more difficult.
While working on the one-shot, he had already been thinking about how to adapt it, and now he had a rough plan.
However, that was not the most urgent issue.
For Shonen Jump, there was an offline submission method. New artists needed to prepare three chapters, contact the editorial department, and schedule an appointment. An editor would then meet them in person for a review.
The version of Fate/stay night he was preparing was intended for this route.
Right now, the key task was not how to adapt the story in detail, but how to compress the early portion of the narrative.
The opening of Fate/stay night was simply too slow.
In the original game, the story begins with Shirou summoning Saber, then shifts to Tohsaka Rin's perspective and unfolds over several days.
Day one covers Rin's school life and her summoning of Archer.
Day two shows her patrol and encounter with Shirou.
Day three includes the battle with Lancer, Shirou's death and revival, and finally Saber's summoning.
All of this is just the prologue, yet it takes several hours to read.
In the Unlimited Blade Works anime, Episode 0 adapts part of this prologue and still runs for 47 minutes.
Episode 1 continues the story from Shirou's perspective and also lasts 47 minutes.
Together, these two episodes are equivalent to about four standard anime episodes.
In manga form, that would translate to roughly eight chapters.
This pacing was unacceptable.
The original work was a visual novel, where such pacing was acceptable. But for a weekly manga, especially in Shonen Jump, it would be far too slow.
If he followed that structure, it would be doomed to fail.
Additionally, starting from Rin's perspective instead of the protagonist's would be risky for a newcomer, as it could confuse readers.
With that in mind, his direction became clear.
The first chapter must begin from Shirou's perspective, maintain tight pacing, and include action scenes as early as possible.
This was not as difficult as it sounded.
First chapters in Shonen Jump often have extended page counts, sometimes equivalent to two or three regular chapters.
For example, Naruto began with 61 pages, One Piece with 58 pages, and Demon Slayer with around 60 pages.
With that in mind, by cutting unnecessary daily life content and pushing the story forward to Shirou witnessing the battle between Archer and Lancer, the goal was achievable.
As for the removed content, he could reintroduce it later through flashbacks or special chapters.
If necessary, he could even create a slice-of-life spin-off in the future.
Would fans accept it?
He had no doubt they would.
Returning to the main point.
As his thoughts became clearer, he outlined the first three chapters.
However, before starting, there was one crucial change he needed to make.
He picked up a G-pen and began drawing a character on a blank manuscript page.
It was someone both familiar and unfamiliar.
A girl in the Homurahara Academy uniform, with slightly wavy medium-length blue hair, stood with her head tilted, looking down with a confident and slightly mocking expression.
Akira looked at the drawing and smiled.
"Matou Shinji… no. From today on, you are Mato Shinji."
Yes.
He had decided to gender-swap Matou Shinji.
Originally, Shinji's role had been difficult to handle. But recalling an old discussion about what would happen if Shinji were a girl gave him a new idea.
With this change, many previously problematic elements became easier to manage.
Even aspects that remained unchanged became more acceptable.
"As expected of you, Shinji… no, Mato Shinji."
He laughed softly.
"Sometimes, changing one detail can solve everything."
He set the page down, satisfied.
At this point, he felt that the project was already halfway to success.
Time to begin.
...
...
With the experience gained from drawing Emiya Kiritsugu, the process of creating Fate/stay night went much more smoothly this time.
The total volume of the three chapters reached nearly one hundred pages, about twice that of the one-shot.
Even so, he completed everything in just twelve days.
His efficiency had improved even further.
There was not much more to say.
Having an advantage really made a difference.
During this time, Shonen Jump released two more issues. In Issue 24, released on May 18, Hell Teacher officially concluded, marking the end of another long-running series.
Because of this, Akira felt that his chances of gaining serialization had slightly improved.
More importantly, after estimating his progress, he had already contacted the editorial department and scheduled a meeting.
Now, he had received confirmation.
On May 23, the next day, he would visit the Shonen Jump editorial department for an in-person review.