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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 19: Leak (2)
If we can’t stop the leak, then ‘we’ll’ leak it ourselves.
If anyone involved heard that, they’d probably scream, ‘What kind of bullshit is that?!’
However, Matsuda—already influenced by Jung Junhyuk and gradually embracing a more progressive mindset said—
“I see…”
—and accepted it immediately.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Matsuda… What on earth are you talking about?”
Hashida, who had confidently brought Jung Junhyuk to the editorial department, pulled Matsuda aside after hearing about their scheming. He rubbed his forehead in frustration.
He gave him a look that said, ‘Say something already,’ before letting him go.
“Heh…”
Matsuda smiled sheepishly, embarrassed.
Eventually, Hashida’s anger got the best of him, and he picked up a magazine nearby.
Apparently, hitting someone with a book is still legal.
“Team leader.”
Hashida, ready to throw the book at any moment, paused at Matsuda’s serious words.
“Please, no hitting with the corners. Use the flat side—it hurts less.”
Hashida’s patience was reaching its limit.
＊ ＊ ＊
While Hashida was inflicting some ‘justified’ violence on his junior as usual, Jung Junhyuk was locked in a tense face-off with the editor-in-chief.
Seeing Jung Junhyuk confronting the editor, everyone in the editorial department gulped hard.
“To witness the editor-in-chief versus writer Jung in my lifetime… now that’s something that gets the blood pumping.”
“What do you think will happen?”
“I’m betting everything I’ve got—fingers and all—on writer Jung.”
“I’ll wager my food budget for the week.”
“Then I’ll bet 500 yen—my entire savings for the month—on writer Jung.”
At that, all eyes shifted to the deputy editor.
More surprising than the deputy not scolding everyone for gambling during work hours was the size of his bet.
Catching the mood, the deputy editor let out a bitter sigh, holding back his frustration.
“My wife caught me with a secretly bought golf club.”
“Oh no…”
“How cruel the world can be…”
Everyone there offered him their heartfelt sympathy.
Ignoring the editors’ antics, Jung Junhyuk and the editor-in-chief got back to business.
“Are you suggesting we handle the leak ourselves—officially releasing it from our side?”
“Yes, of course, I’m not saying we should leak everything. Something like a movie trailer, just enough to build interest. Something a bit more special, like I mentioned before.”
The editor-in-chief gave a wry smile.
“I see…”
In truth, there has never been a precedent for intentionally leaking content beforehand, so strictly speaking, it shouldn’t be allowed.
But the editor couldn’t bring himself to say it outright.
Though the leak is currently suspected to have come from the printing company, that is only an assumption.
Moreover, even if that’s true, the editorial department still bears responsibility for not properly overseeing the printer’s security.
Carrying that burden, and hearing Jung Junhyuk say something like, ‘You can’t catch them anyway’ (though he never actually said that), left the editor speechless.
So, it’s not like he can flatly refuse this request.
‘I want to say yes, truly.’
But the approval process would be complicated.
Realistically, getting permission would be difficult.
“Writer, we want to hear your thoughts, but this is not a decision we can make lightly on our own. We also need to hear from the publishing company.”
“Oh, that should be fine.”
“What do you mean—”
Ring-Ring—!
Before the editor could finish speaking, a phone rang.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
The phone ringing was Jung Junhyuk’s.
“Yes, Chairman. Yes, I’m at the editorial department right now. Yes.”
At the mention of the title, Jung Junhyuk’s body stiffened involuntarily.
They had seen him get the chairman’s personal number at a dinner before, but who could have guessed the chairman would actually call?
Watching him stare blankly at the phone, the editor-in-chief took it from Jung Junhyuk.
- This is Chairman Moriyama.
Taken aback, the editor instinctively responded in kind.
“Editor-in-chief, this is Aizawa Touji.”
- Ha ha. Aizawa-kun, how have you been?
“Yes, sir. I hope you’re doing well too, Chairman.”
After the brief, robotic exchange, Chairman Moriyama cut to the chase.
- I heard about the series of events with writer Jung. Seems he got caught in a difficult situation.
“That’s right. This happened because of issues on our end—”
- I know it’s not your fault, so I’m not here to blame anyone. I just called to pass a message, so don’t stress too much.
“A message?”
- Tell him to go ahead with what he said. I’m personally curious too. I’ll handle any annoying noise from this side. So tell him to give it his all.
Hearing the chairman’s voice on the other end, the editor glanced at Jung Junhyuk.
And then—
“If it’s alright with you, may we go ahead and expand the scope a bit?”
The editor adjusted his glasses.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Writer Jung, could you please explain again what you mentioned earlier?”
In the meeting room of the Weekly Shōnen Jump editorial department, Jung Junhyuk stood up to respond to the editor-in-chief’s request. Matsuda, Hashida, and the deputy editor were also present.
“The ‘official leak’ I talked about this time isn’t just about leaking a few scanned pages.”
“Then how exactly do you plan to leak it?”
The deputy editor asked.
Jung Junhyuk held up two fingers.
“We’re going to create a manga video by stitching together parts of the already published chapters and some from the upcoming release.”
“A manga video?”
“You can think of it like an animation-style video with some movement added and fitting background music. It’s similar to what future Jump has done on official YouTube channels or Twitter, which successfully attracted a significant number of readers.”
In fact, in the future, Jump’s official YouTube channel even added voice actors to dub the manga.
Of course, what they’re doing now will be a bit lower quality than that.
“But, Writer Jung, I hear video work takes a lot of time. Are you sure you can handle it?”
The deputy editor asked, concerned. Jung Junhyuk nodded.
“I can do it in half a day—or actually, about three hours—right after I get home.”
“What a crazy genius.”
“?”
“Sorry, that was my honest reaction.”
Of course, the reason Jung could handle this was that in his previous life, he had taken on all the video work for turning manga into animation-style videos at Jump.
But a third party unaware of that would naturally think, ‘What the hell is this guy even doing?’
“I don’t think Writer Jung would suggest something he can’t do, so we’ll leave the video work to him.”
Then the editor-in-chief continued—
“This is if you have time, but what do you think about adding voice actor dubbing to the video work we just talked about? Something like a drama CD adapted into video format.”
At that, everyone in the meeting room’s eyes widened.
Jung Junhyuk was surprised too.
“Editor-in-chief, the magazine release is just a week away. Considering the leak is estimated to have happened between late night and early morning on the weekend, we need to finish in four days at the latest.”
The deputy editor’s point was valid.
They had to arrange for voice actors, studio space, sound directors, and external staff, which was no small task.
“It’s a short dub, so it should be possible. Many voice actors and staff would jump at the chance if we show them the name ‘D Note.’”
The editor adjusted his glasses and looked at Jung.
“I’ve seen you struggle lately, but having been in this industry a long time, I have plenty of contacts. Don’t worry about that. Just focus on the video work and let us know as soon as you finish.”
This kind of manga-video production would realistically happen years or even a decade later.
But to do it in 2000…
Unlike the skeptical faces of the editorial staff exchanging glances, Jung Junhyuk felt pure curiosity rising.
If manga were turned into video now, what kind of quality would it have? How would the public react?
Fueled by that curiosity alone, Jung wanted to start the work as soon as possible.
＊ ＊ ＊
“All done.”
“……”
“……”
It had been only four hours since Jung Junhyuk finished the meeting at the editorial department, waved goodbye with a cheerful ‘See you later, everyone! I’m off to work~,’ and hopped into a taxi.
Actually, if you count the commute time back and forth, maybe three hours.
He left around lunchtime and came back by evening, carrying a USB with the video data, announcing that the work was finished.
“What the heck? Is he some kind of spirit?”
“Did he just come from the future or something?”
Hashida and the deputy editor, clearly stunned, greeted Jung Junhyuk and checked the video files on the USB.
Then—
“…Looks like the editing should be done by Writer Jung, not us.”
“Calm down. Our editing isn’t video editing, after all.”
Team Leader Hashida and the deputy editor fell into self-doubt.
“This is definitely more than enough to serve as an advertisement, isn’t it?”
“It’s not just enough—it’s almost a waste. This could totally be used as a TV commercial.”
That’s how shocking the video Jung had made was.
It was hard to believe he’d whipped this up in just three hours.
“Where’s the editor-in-chief?”
“Oh, he’s gathering staff to help with this project along with Matsuda.”
At Team Leader Hashida’s reply, the phone rang.
The deputy editor, seeing ‘Editor-in-Chief’ on the caller ID, answered.
“This is Sawada.”
- I’ve gathered the staff. What about Writer Jung?
“He’s already here. And he really did finish the video in just three hours.”
- Damn, we’re beaten.
“Wait, what?”
- No, I meant, ‘You got here fast.’
“Oh, right. I didn’t think the editor-in-chief would be childish enough to race on speed. Haha!”
- …Sawada, looks like you’re on overtime today.
“Huh? Come again?”
Beep—Beep—Beep
So the work and staff were all lined up smoothly, and Sawada the deputy editor’s overtime was officially confirmed.
＊ ＊ ＊
After the whirlwind that was Monday came Tuesday.
The biggest headache—finding a director and a studio—was resolved surprisingly quickly that same day.
Now, the only thing left was casting the voice actors.
There were quite a few characters in this episode, but honestly, the voice casting wasn’t something I was too worried about.
There were plenty of voice actors with open schedules.
It wasn’t that they lacked skill—just that the opportunities were scarce. So, there were a lot of talented but lesser-known voice actors still waiting for their shot.
On top of that, the editor-in-chief had personally taken charge of rounding up talent for the supporting roles, so those were already pretty much locked in.
What remained was just casting one or two lead characters.
- Still, it'd be nice if the casting had a bit more buzz, you know?
As I walked to school, I nodded while listening to Matsuda update me over the phone.
“Right. That said, casting someone super famous might be tough. We’re already in the third quarter anime season—most of the top names are booked solid.
- Isn’t there someone out there with a bit of name recognition, not a ton of voice acting experience, but enough to stir some attention?
“Yeah, that would be ideal. If only someone like that would just magically show up right in fron—”
And that’s when I stopped in my tracks.
Right in front of me was a very familiar back of the head.
“Found her. Our heroine’s voice actor.”
She had a decent name for herself, enough public interest, and even a bit of voice acting experience.
The celebrity from our class.
“Matsuda-san, leave the lead female casting to me.”
Hanging up the phone, I walked straight up to the girl in our school uniform—Hasegawa Kanna—and said—
“You. Let’s work together.”
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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