"Hmph, I'll see how you plan to beat me today."
As luck would have it, Tohka and Nia's booths were set up right next to each other again. The two of them were sitting side by side, and as Tohka stared at the huge pile of all kinds of comics on Nia's table, the corner of her mouth twitched uncontrollably. This girl's works were absolutely dazzling. Nothing like her own pathetic handful of volumes. Sure, she still had a few that she hadn't brought out to sell—but even counting those, they couldn't compare.
And as for why she didn't want to sell them… Well, Tohka figured they'd only cause trouble. Besides, her own doujins were fine for just a few people to look at; if she put them out for sale she'd die of embarrassment.
...
"Ugh…dammit." So, she sat there, watching the crowd gathering in front of their tables with frustration. Hers clearly had way fewer visitors than Nia's. And that was even considering that a good number of people, after browsing Nia's stuff, came over to look at hers out of curiosity.
"Hehehe, looks like you're guaranteed to lose." Sure enough, Miku noticed how things were going at Tohka's booth and smiled sweetly at her. Apparently, she thought the result was already decided—and was just wondering how she'd make Tohka pay up afterward.
"Hmph, don't count me out just yet." Hearing that, Tohka snorted dismissively. Honestly, her own sales were actually decent—definitely upper-middle tier for this convention. But Nia's booth was the most popular by far. Still, Tohka didn't think she would lose. In the original story, she'd relied on the others wearing bunny-girl costumes to pull in customers, plus Miku's popularity bonus, to barely end up even with Miku.
But this time, Tohka had no intention of resorting to something as humiliating as a bunny suit. And maybe because of her stubborn pride, she also didn't want to borrow Miku's star power. So, before the convention started, she'd already made some targeted sales. After all, Origami was one of those "car, house, and deceased parents" types who basically had no shortage of money, not to mention her AST salary. And as for Kyouhei Kannazuki—well, he was a high-ranking official with no shortage of funds either. So, she'd already won at the starting line—and by a pretty wide margin too. Tohka figured that even if she didn't sell a single copy here today, her total revenue would still crush Miku's. As for pure sales volume—she'd never even dreamed of competing on that front. After all, she simply wasn't as skilled. Nothing to be ashamed of.
"Where are you getting all this confidence from? Why are you so sure you're gonna win?" Seeing how sure Tohka was, Nia looked genuinely puzzled. She did have an omniscient Angel, of course—but she wasn't so crazy as to keep it active all the time. And she'd been too busy making her own books to monitor Tohka's every move. She definitely hadn't expected Tohka to be so deranged enough to make a doujin of herself.
"Hehe, that's a secret." Tohka smiled mysteriously, then paused and added: "Don't rush to use your Angel—wait until the convention's over. That way there'll still be some suspense. Otherwise, it won't be any fun."
"Tch. Fine. Acting all mysterious… I'd like to see what you think you can pull off." Nia clicked her tongue dismissively. In her eyes, she could crush Tohka purely on her own skill—so whatever scheme she was planning didn't matter.
....
The bustling convention eventually drew to a close after a full day. And now the two of them were tallying up the day's earnings.
"Wahaha—look at this! That's my total sales. Well? Do you even have half of that?" Nia was the first to finish counting and smugly showed off her numbers. Her books had been a massive hit, sales volume skyrocketing. And since her prices were a lot higher than Tohka's, she might have made double the profit—maybe more.
"Ugh… 1,000 yen… 2,000 yen… 500 yen… dammit, why is yen such a huge currency unit… couldn't you all just use Alipay? Why do you have to pay me in cash… ugh… I even put up a sign…"
Meanwhile, Tohka was in agony as she stared at the pile of bills in front of her.
Overall, even though she hadn't matched Miku's total, she'd still made quite a bit. But she was going crazy trying to sort through all this paper money. She'd grown up using Alipay and WeChat—this was pure torture.
"Aiya… just stop counting already. You can tell at a glance that you've got less than me. Don't believe it? See for yourself."
Nia glanced at the frazzled Tohka, then simply set her numbers in front of her for comparison.
"Eh!" Tohka froze. She looked at Nia's totals… Then looked down at the mess in front of her… And in Nia's puzzled gaze, she suddenly leapt up—completely ignoring the money that fell to the ground— and shouted triumphantly: "Hahaha—I win! I win! Your entire haul is basically the same as my presales alone—add today's money on top, and it's no contest!"
She laughed for a few seconds, then realized Nia was staring at her like she was a lunatic. So, she could only awkwardly twitch her mouth and say: "Don't look at me like that. If you don't believe it, use your Angel to check."
"Uh… You better not be lying to me." Giving her a skeptical look, Nia summoned her Angel. They were on a rooftop anyway, so there was no risk of being seen. Calmly, she started flipping through the records. But the more she read, the weirder her expression became— Until finally, she stared at Tohka with an almost worshipful look and said: "You actually went so far as to draw a doujin of yourself… Do you… do you have any more? Let me see."
"Uh…" Feeling Nia's stare, Tohka's face went bright red. She twisted her body uncomfortably, then sighed as if resigning herself— And pulled out a single book from her little storage space. She'd only ever printed two copies of this one— One she'd given to Miku, and this was the other. As for the printer itself—she'd destroyed it completely, so nobody else could ever see it.
"Pfft—you…you really…" When she saw Tohka's art, Nia got so excited she nearly had a nosebleed on the spot. No doubt about it—most of Tohka's effort had gone into making these "private" books. The artwork was exquisitely detailed. And the most shocking part was that the character looked exactly like Tohka herself— as if she'd stepped straight out of an anime.
Not to mention the way she'd worked so frantically to finish it all.
Suddenly, Nia felt her heart skip a beat. She'd just opened her mouth to say something— When out of nowhere, a surge of vivid memories crashed through her mind. Scenes she'd never seen before— all flooding in at once, battering her consciousness. She dropped to one knee, clutching her head, and started screaming in pain.