"What did Shirogane say?" Han asked.
"He was very firm," Misaki replied after taking a deep breath.
"He said that when the character Sai was created in the very first chapter of Hikaru no Go, Sai's ending had already been decided."
"It cannot be changed," she continued.
"And… he explicitly stated that he will not change it, no matter what."
Han's eyes narrowed slightly.
"'No matter what'?" he repeated.
"Does that mean that even if I, or the Hoshimori Group, request that he alter the plot direction for the group's benefit, extend the serialization of Hikaru no Go, he would still refuse?"
"He would," Misaki said firmly this time, leaving no room for misunderstanding.
"Shirogane made it very clear. No matter what I think, the ending direction of Hikaru no Go is fixed. Even if this storyline causes massive controversy after serialization, leading to a drop in popularity or even cancellation, he will not change it."
Han fell silent.
A dull headache began to form behind his temples.
'Young… stubborn… arrogant…'
These young genius manga artists were always like this, full of confidence, full of pride.
You tried to reason with them, and they simply wouldn't listen.
Of course, he hoped Hikaru no Go would run longer.
Its popularity was at its peak, ending it in just a few months would be such a waste.
After a long pause, Han finally spoke.
"Go and persuade him once more," he said slowly.
"If he truly won't budge, then respect his wishes."
After all, Hikaru no Go's commercial value was not particularly high.
If Shirogane genuinely refused to listen, forcing the issue would only cause more trouble.
More importantly, Han didn't want to risk a complete falling-out with Shirogane, one that might drive him to another manga group altogether.
Adults weighed many interests.
But what would a seventeen-year-old genius consider?
'If I'm unhappy here, I'll just go somewhere else.'
Even though Hikaru no Go had signed various restrictive contracts with Hoshimori Group before serialization, under Japanese law those agreements couldn't contain overly oppressive clauses.
At most, there were some non-compete periods and limited liquidated damages.
Given Rei's income, reputation, and age, It wasn't impossible for him to bear them.
Of course, if this were a battle-type pillar manga, things would be very different.
Even if the creator openly fell out with the editors, the group would still use every clause, restriction, and legal lever to force the work to continue and extract all remaining commercial value.
For a work like Source War Chronicle, even if Han himself agreed to let it end, upper management would never allow it.
The stock price fluctuation alone would be unacceptable.
Hearing this, Misaki finally let out a long breath.
The worst-case scenario had been avoided.
With Han's authority, he could decide to allow Hikaru no Go to end according to its original plan, without escalating the issue to higher management.
Otherwise, if the group's senior executives, people who only cared about money and market value, who treated popular manga artists as endlessly exploitable assets, completely ignoring the basic logic of storytelling, Intervened directly…
Given Rei's temperament, a violent confrontation would be almost inevitable.
Misaki had seen such things before.
Her own mother had once had a bitter falling-out with a former Editor-in-Chief of Hoshimori Group, simply because she wanted to end her manga at its peak.
As for persuading Rei again, Misaki had already accepted reality.
That was just how Rei was.
There was no point in nagging him endlessly.
That evening
While Misaki was still handling matters related to Hikaru no Go, Rika delivered good news to Rei.
The Go record he had requested had finally been completed, with the combined effort of two top-tier professional Go players in Japan.
Rika, however, looked rather puzzled.
When she had told those two players that the White stones could still turn the game around, both of them had burst into laughter.
Each of them had won world championship titles, only once, not triple or quintuple champions.
But they were still unquestionably among the strongest Go players in Japan.
Both of them said the same thing:
The strength displayed in the game was terrifying. Even while replaying the board, they could clearly feel the overwhelming skill of both players.
But even so, the White stones had absolutely no chance of making a comeback.
As for the so-called "reversal move", they weren't even interested in exploring it.
They were afraid that forcing a miraculous comeback would feel like a blunder, ruining their respect for the players involved.
But while those two weren't interested, Rika was.
So after arriving at Rei's home, Rei didn't waste any time. As agreed, he showed Rika the complete final Go record of the match, move by move.
Before long, Rika's expression changed.
Over the next few days, while Rei was busy dealing with various matters,
On Friday, the seventh volume of the hikaru no go tankōbon was officially released.
On the day of its release, hikaru no go fans flooded bookstores all across Japan.
Market expectations for Volume Seven's sales rose sharply. Some media outlets even boldly predicted that its first-week sales might exceed 3.5 million copies.
At the same time,
On Saturday evening at 6 p.m., the first episode of the hikaru no go anime officially aired on Tokyo Metropolitan Television.
It immediately set a new record for the highest debut rating of any anime this season.
The premiere concluded with a 4.96% viewership rating.
With both the manga and TV drama already massive hits, the possibility of the anime failing had been practically nonexistent from the start.
And sure enough,
The anime's market performance met expectations perfectly.
However, for the vast majority of hikaru no go fans, neither the broadcast of the second season of the TV drama nor the anime's debut was their most pressing concern.
What everyone truly cared about was still the latest chapter of the manga.
Specifically, how the match between Toya Koyo and Sai would unfold.
And how it would ultimately end.
Although hikaru no go had already become extremely popular in Japan, those who had never read it, or had never even heard of it, still made up an overwhelming majority.
After all, with such a large population, no company or institution could claim that its promotional reach covered everyone.
Because of this, once the anime aired, its impact on the popularity of hikaru no go was immediate, and even more dramatic than that of the TV drama.
Many new anime viewers, after watching just the first episode, immediately turned to the original manga.
This was precisely why once a manga received an anime adaptation, it often triggered an explosive rise in manga sales.
When the first volume of hikaru no go was initially released, its first-week sales were under one million copies.
Based on that performance, a total sales figure of three million copies would already have been considered excellent.
But after nearly a year of serialization, coupled with the successive broadcasts of the TV drama and the anime,
On January 10th, the total sales of Volume One officially surpassed ten million copies.
Although this achievement applied to only the first volume, it sent an unmistakable signal to the entire industry.
Because hikaru no go had been serialized for such a short time, and its rise had been so rapid, many fans and even industry insiders had lacked a concrete sense of just how popular it truly was.
People said it was popular.
They said it ranked near the top of Dream Comic. They said its TV drama dominated ratings.
But for readers who didn't understand industry metrics, those statements felt abstract.
However, once you said a single tankōbon volume sold over ten million copies, everyone understood.
In Japan, eight to nine million copies per volume already marked the boundary of a first-tier manga.
Exceeding ten million copies per volume meant a firmly established top-tier work.
And now, the first volume of hikaru no go had already crossed that threshold within half a year of its release.
At this point, both insiders and outsiders finally grasped the scale of its success.
"Are there really tens of millions of Go enthusiasts in Japan? The first volume sold ten million copies, won't all the later volumes follow?"
"The person above probably doesn't understand Go very well. Even if not many people actively follow professional Go matches, there are still tens of millions who understand the rules and have basic familiarity with the game."
"It's just that maybe fewer than one in ten actually watch matches regularly or play a game every year."
"That many people?"
"I always thought Go wasn't very popular."
"It's like shogi or chess. There are huge numbers of people who know how to play, but how many watch professional matches every day? Most people learn it for fun and might not touch it again for years."
"In that situation, of course it feels like it isn't popular."
"Shirogane-sensei is unbelievable. Just the first volume alone broke ten million sales."
"The main reason is that the pull effect of the anime and TV drama is simply too strong. If there were no anime or live-action adaptations, hikaru no go's tankōbon sales would probably be only half of what they are now."
"Go, go, go! Right now only the first volume has broken ten million sales. Give it a little more time and the average per volume will hit ten million."
"Isn't hikaru no go developing too fast? It feels kind of unreal."
"You'll understand once you look at hikaru no go's update rate. Shirogane produces more manga manuscripts in a single year than many manga artists do in two. In any industry, if you can either do things well or do them fast, you can succeed. Shirogane's work is both high quality and insanely fast, so these results are only natural."
"How can a seventeen-year-old high school student, who's still in school, draw a manga like hikaru no go? It can't be ghostwritten, right?"
"Anyone who says that is just brainless. At this point, hikaru no go can bring tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, in income to its creator. What kind of ghostwriter would be stupid enough to take a tiny ghostwriting fee instead of creating their own work?"
"Ever since Teacher Shirogane became famous, idiots have started popping up. Who knows if they're just anti-fans sent by supporters of other manga artists. Just ignore them."
"People fear fame the way pigs fear getting fat. A seventeen-year-old high school student making tens of millions a year would make at least fifty or sixty out of a hundred people jealous, envious, or resentful. Of course they won't feel comfortable unless they try to drag Teacher Shirogane down."
"Do you think hikaru no go will really keep going like this and end up topping Dream Comic?"
"I don't know whether it'll reach number one or not, but I don't think there'll be any suspense for this year's Manga of the Year award. I can already picture Teacher Shirogane going up on stage in February to give a speech and accept the award again."