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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 18: Leak (1)
“Wow…”
Every week, the Weekly Shōnen Jump editorial team posted the results of their reader popularity polls.
One of the editors let out a small gasp of awe after seeing the latest numbers.
“32 weeks in a row at number one… I didn’t think it’d actually happen.”
“At this rate, it’s gonna top the charts from first chapter to final. Seriously.”
“……”
“……”
No one in the room could bring themselves to respond.
Just a few months ago, that kind of talk had been half-joke, half-drunken brag. At after-work dinners, people casually bet on how long ‘D Note’ would stay at number one—or when it’d finally fall from the top spot.
But now, with the 50-chapter finale officially confirmed… and with that unprecedented 30-week streak sitting right in front of them… it didn’t feel like a joke anymore.
“Isn’t Matsuda still just in his second year?”
“This kind of success is… honestly kind of a problem.”
“He doesn’t even have a junior editor under him yet, does he?”
Sure, the Jump editorial department had a reputation for being fairly laid-back compared to other magazines—but that didn’t mean people weren’t ambitious.
If someone from your starting class got promoted before you? Yeah, maybe a little jealousy, but you could still clap and cheer for them.
But a junior? Someone who came in after you?
That hits different.
An awkward tension hung between the three editors standing there.
“…Well then. I’m gonna, uh, hit the restroom real quick.”
With a serious look on his face, Minemura started walking off—only to be stopped by a colleague who knew better.
“Dude. That’s not the restroom. That’s the archives. Where the manuscripts are.”
“Ha ha, of course! I was just… uh… headed to the bathroom on the lower floor.”
“What a coincidence. I was planning to head that way too.”
The two of them locked eyes, and sparks flew as an unspoken battle of wills began.
Meanwhile, the third editor quietly started inching toward the archive room.
His target: the mountain of manuscripts.
His mission: to dig out the next D Note-level hit, just like Matsuda had.
He moved like a ninja, full of ambition and dreams—but it didn’t matter.
The two others, who’d been seconds from ripping into each other, turned their gazes on him in perfect unison.
The battle that followed was brutal—settled, as always, by the sacred rite of ‘rock-paper-scissors.’
Only one would earn the right to enter the archive that day.
＊ ＊ ＊
With summer fully upon them and summer vacation just around the corner, Hasegawa Kanna sat on the living room sofa before heading off to school, humming softly to herself.
In her hand was this week’s issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump.
Maybe because she already knew ‘D Note’ would wrap up at chapter 50, the story hurtling toward its finale felt even more thrilling to Kanna.
‘D Note’ is about Aito, who uses a deadly notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it, to eliminate criminals. The main focus is the intense mental battle between Aito and J, who is determined to uncover Aito’s true identity.
Both are fully aware that they’re holding metaphorical knives to each other’s throats, carefully probing one another’s intentions from the sidelines.
But J’s brilliant deductive skills have cornered Aito completely, and Aito is thrown off guard by J’s unexpected bold moves.
J has the upper hand, pressuring Aito relentlessly.
Still, Aito isn’t just sitting there quietly.
Using the rules of the ‘D Note’ itself, Aito takes the drastic step of erasing his own memories.
Seeing this, J—who’d been dominating the situation—begins to waver.
Amid the confused cries from the investigation team, J is forced to consider a different approach.
“This is seriously fascinating…”
Having finished reading the latest ‘D Note’ chapter, Kanna felt a satisfied fullness, as if she’d just eaten a hearty meal.
After flipping through it once more a bit more casually, she checked her phone.
Still about twenty minutes to spare.
Now that she’d read ‘D Note’, it was time to see what others thought and how they were reacting.
Kanna grabbed her laptop from her room and logged onto her usual internet site.
‘D Note’ was so popular it was even boosting magazine sales.
Though it was still early morning, as usual, there would be plenty of fan reactions and story predictions posted by now.
But what she found on the community site was—
“Uh…?”
Contrary to Kanna’s expectations, the discussions weren’t about D Note’s plot or fan theories at all. Instead, the conversation was burning hot over something completely different.
The topic was…
＊ ＊ ＊
“Leak?”
“Yes. Part of the content for ‘D Note’ that was supposed to be published this morning was leaked online sometime around late Saturday night.”
Matsuda rarely uses formal speech with me. Since we spend both work and personal time together, casual talk is our norm. So when he switches to formal like this, it means things are serious.
“I’m sorry. We’re currently investigating the cause on our end, but it might take some time.”
That alone tells me how severe this situation is.
In my studio where we always hold meetings, Matsuda sat across from me, bowing his head in apology.
It’s never a pleasant sight to see someone who always gives their best lowering their head like that.
“Please look up, Matsuda. From what I gather, it looks like the leak came from the printing side, not the editorial department—is that right?”
“That seems to be the—”
“I don’t like hearing that kind of stiff talk. Just talk to me like you usually do.”
“That seems to be the case.”
“Hmm…”
I clicked on a post about the ‘D Note’ leak that had popped up on the community site while clicking my mouse.
The post had a few photos attached—pictures of ‘D Note’ pages taken with a low-quality camera.
Though the images were blurry and the text and drawings weren’t sharp, they were still readable if you zoomed in enough.
“Matsuda, does this look like it was taken with a phone camera?”
I turned my laptop toward him, and he nodded.
“Yeah. We’re guessing one of the workers took these during the final print check and uploaded them.”
“…How long do you think it’ll take to track down the source?”
“I can’t say for sure, but with so many printing houses involved, it probably won’t be easy to catch quickly.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
Weekly Shōnen Jump magazines, which are distributed nationwide and even exported overseas, obviously aren’t all printed at one place.
Even if the leak happened inside Japan, it’s uncertain if they’ll catch the culprit.
I don’t know all the details about the printing environments, but from old stories I’ve heard, they have to work fast, so they often hire outside workers or short-term temps, which naturally weakens security.
It might take a week—or even a month—to find the source. Or maybe they never will, no matter how much time passes.
If that’s the case…
“Maybe it’s time to change our approach.”
＊ ＊ ＊
“What’s going on?”
Through the chatter of the printing plant workers, a man in a work uniform—Yaguchi Akihiro, approached and asked.
“Well, some crazy idiot took pictures of a magazine that hasn’t even been released yet and leaked it.”
“No way, for real?”
Yaguchi threw his hands up in exaggerated surprise and shouted.
“They say it was taken with a phone camera, and they confiscate phones when you come in. This isn’t some school for kids… What the heck are they thinking?”
At the words of an older co-worker, Yaguchi flinched and trembled.
“D-Do they check the phones too?”
“Nah, no way. There’s privacy, you know? They wouldn’t do that.”
“Right? Phones are private. Haha.”
The older co-worker clicked his tongue and said to Yaguchi—
“If you’ve got people to contact, do it now. They say you can’t use your phones inside.”
“Oh, yeah! I’ll do that! I’ll call before going in!”
Hurrying into a restroom stall, Yaguchi checked his phone’s photo gallery.
His gallery was packed with photos of D Note’s manuscripts.
“Delete. Delete.”
Yaguchi had been secretly looking at the hot topic ‘D Note’ before its release while working at the printing plant.
At first, it was just for himself, but eventually, he started showing the photos to acquaintances—and thanks to one friend’s clever idea, they began selling the data.
Since the series was so popular, the money was pretty decent.
For nearly two months, Yaguchi had been selling photos of the unreleased ‘D Note.’
But now, part of the data he sold had leaked online, exposing his crime.
“It’s fine. It’s fine.”
There were several printing plants around the country printing Weekly Shōnen Jump. The source probably hadn’t been pinpointed yet.
That should be the end of it.
It should be.
Yaguchi looked at the thick stack of cash in his wallet.
Way too much money for a lowly printing plant worker.
He gulped hard.
D Note’s end was still unknown.
So maybe, even while it’s still running, he could take a little more advantage for himself, right?
Unable to resist the sweet temptation of money, Yaguchi made up his mind.
“Hey, it’s Yaguchi. Can you get me a tiny camera or maybe a phone that isn’t activated?”
Grinning wide, he decided to keep the crime going.
＊ ＊ ＊
As always, Yaguchi secretly snapped photos of D Note’s content, avoiding everyone’s eyes.
Lately, the surveillance had tightened, so unlike before, he didn’t have much time to spare, and as a result, the photo quality dropped a bit.
But it was just barely clear enough to read, so selling them shouldn’t be a problem.
Thinking that, Yaguchi hummed to himself while trying to contact his buyer.
Because the whole external leak incident had made things complicated, Yaguchi planned to demand more money—and the smile on his face wouldn’t fade.
Waiting for a reply in the chatroom of the usual website he traded on, Yaguchi suddenly heard a ping—
“...What?”
The reply was completely unexpected.
＊ ＊ ＊
[How Jump Responds to the Information Leak]
If you can’t stop the leak, then I’ll leak it myself first.
ㄴLOL, a leak? I’ll just release a better version, what’s the big deal?
ㄴThey say the author himself thought of this, is that true?
ㄴThe author is a god, the author is a god, the author is a god.
An ‘official leaked version’ of the ‘D Note’ manuscript appeared online, beating the unauthorized leak by a step.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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