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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 20: Leak (3)
There was a weird guy in Hasegawa Kanna’s class.
That weird guy was supposedly the author of the hit manga ‘D Note.’
After discovering that ‘D Note’ had recently been leaked, Kanna found herself genuinely worried about her classmate, who had been absent from school on Monday without saying a word.
‘He must be feeling pretty down.’
The idea that something you poured your heart into could be floating around the internet before its official release—it was enough to make even a bystander furious.
So how much worse must it feel for the person who actually created it?
‘I wonder if he’ll come to school today…’
Normally, on Mondays—the release days—they would eat lunch together and geek out over anime and manga.
But missing just one week of that routine left her feeling strangely out of sorts.
Just as those thoughts were swirling in her head, Jung Junhyuk suddenly appeared right in front of her.
Like a wild Pokemon encounter—completely out of nowhere.
The only difference was…
Before Kanna even had a chance to think—Jung Junhyuk hit her with a preemptive strike.
“You. Let’s work together.”
A business proposal, out of the blue—definitely not what she’d been expecting.
＊ ＊ ＊
“A voice actor? Me?”
“A voice actor. You.”
In Japan, given how massive the animation industry is, it's not uncommon for actors to have some voice acting experience under their belts. Actually, it’s more common than you’d think.
Kanna was one of them.
If you’re wondering how Jung Junhyuk knew about Kanna’s acting résumé, the answer’s simple—
Kanna had practically recited her filmography every time they had lunch together—not out of vanity, but because she had no one else to brag to.
Anywhere else, people might’ve called her ‘try-hard’ or ‘annoying,’ so Junhyuk was the only safe space she had to let loose about it.
But unlike her usual confident self when talking about her past roles, right now, Kanna looked unsure of herself.
“I still take voice training lessons, mostly for vocal work, but… I haven’t actually done any professional projects since I was a kid…”
She trailed off and looked at Junhyuk, a little lost.
And Junhyuk?
“Well, if you’re not confident, then it can’t be helped. I’ll look for someone else.”
He turned around without hesitation.
Grab—
Kanna grabbed him by the arm.
“Shouldn’t you, like, at least ask me again a few more times out of courtesy?”
“Wanna try voice acting?”
“That’s not what I—”
“Wanna try voice acting?”
“…Jun-kun, has anyone ever told you there’s something seriously wrong with your head?”
Kanna let out a chuckle. He actually asked her exactly two more times, just like she said.
“Don’t overthink it. If you try it and it’s too hard, you can stop. No pressure.”
This was just a one-off gig.
Given that ‘D Note’ wasn’t some massive series with tons of content, no one knew if it would even get a proper anime adaptation later on. And if it did, having the cast change after a small project like this wasn’t out of the ordinary.
Right now, Kanna just happened to be the perfect match—decent skill, decent public interest.
That’s all there was to it.
Which is why Junhyuk casually tossed the question out again, like it was no big deal.
“Wanna try voice acting?”
“…Are you a robot or something?”
The way he said it—so flat, so devoid of emotion.
And yet, there was something comforting about how he wasn’t saying it as her classmate, but purely from an objective place, seeing her value as a person with the right qualifications.
That made it easier for Kanna to respond with a light smile of her own.
“I’m in. And Jun-kun, you really are kinda weird.”
＊ ＊ ＊
“Oh, she’s actually pretty good.”
Inside the recording studio.
As Kanna’s voice came through the booth in the hastily booked studio, the director let out a quiet note of admiration.
To anyone else, she would’ve seemed like a casting choice made purely for clout—but surprisingly, she had the chops.
Sure, compared to seasoned voice actors, there were still some rough edges in her technique.
But even placed next to mid-tier pros, she didn’t come off as lacking at all.
“She jumped straight into dubbing, picked up the lines and character in no time. Maybe it’s the actress in her—she really brings the role to life. What do you think, Writer Jung?”
The director turned to Jung Junhyuk, seated in the back and watching the session unfold.
Wearing a slightly more mature outfit and a mask to conceal his identity, Junhyuk gave a thumbs-up.
“I like it too.”
The recording session went off without a hitch.
Compared to the grueling schedule of TV anime production, this barely even counted as ‘tight.’
With the voice recordings done, background music layered in, and sound balance adjusted—
“This is solid quality. No one’s going to believe this was thrown together in just three days.”
What they ended up with was an animated short of such quality that the staff and crew couldn’t help but applaud.
“This is good.”
Junhyuk smiled as he watched the finished cut.
It had all happened within just three days, but the way everyone had moved in sync to bring a single piece to life—it reminded him of a thrill he’d forgotten.
In his past life, this kind of thing had been second nature—just another cog in the daily grind.
But now, having been thrown back in time, it all felt new again. Thrilling, even.
And more than anything—
“Yeah… this one’s going to hit.”
Junhyuk felt a new wave of confidence surge through him.
＊ ＊ ＊
Friday night.
An official leak video of 'D note' was released.
The first shot on screen? A few preview pages of ‘D Note’ scheduled to be published next week.
It didn’t beat around the bush—the intro came out swinging and immediately grabbed viewers' attention.
Next came an animated adaptation of last week’s already-released chapter, complete with moving visuals.
The editing was simple, sure, but with added scenes, it became more than just a slideshow. The video brought static panels to life, and viewers were instantly hooked.
Helping the immersion even more was the voice acting.
Despite a possibly fast video pace, the voice actors kept things smooth and digestible—no one felt left behind.
Sound effects matched the beat of the scenes perfectly, dragging the audience deeper into the experience.
And finally, the highlight: those teaser pages from next week’s 'D note', first glimpsed at the beginning of the video.
Just like a movie trailer, it cut from page 1, to 4, to 10—weaving scenes together to ramp up hype among readers.
The video was discreetly dropped across community forums, social media, and even in the news—and it exploded overnight.
[Official 'D note' Leak Video]
ㄴ LOL see?? Official leaks just hit different!
ㄴWhy would anyone bother with that crusty, low-res leak where you can’t even tell what’s going on when this HD beauty exists?
ㄴThere’s even original cuts not in the manga? What, does the author have clones?
[How the author handles leaks: Counter-leak.]
['D note' video link]
ㄴHow do people even come up with stuff like this?
ㄴWait, wasn’t the first leak just last weekend? At the earliest, people only found out Sunday—how did they make this entire video in just a few days?
ㄴ…What even IS this?
ㄴNow that you mention it… huh.
ㄴAnd it even has voice acting.
The buzz didn’t stop there—even news outlets picked up the story.
[Weekly Shōnen Jump editorial team responds with counter-leak strategy.]
[In the end, it’s a battle of quality. The polished, intentional leak ends the mess of sloppy, disrespectful piracy.]
[Child actress Hasegawa Kanna cast as a voice actor in 'D note'?]
['D note'’s counter-leak—the author’s own idea? Is the same genius behind character “J” behind this move too?]
Just last week, the public had been roasting the magazine’s weak security. Now? The tide had turned. The editorial team was getting praised.
People even started mocking the original leaker, saying the IRL ‘cringe version of Eito’ had been totally destroyed by J.
And watching all this from his computer was Yaguchi Akihiro—fuming, he slammed his desk.
“Those same losers who got all excited over ‘my’ leaked scans…!”
Even his previous customers—the ones who paid him for illegal copies—had now turned against him, mocking him online. Yaguchi’s face flushed red with fury.
“What did I even do wrong?! It’s all gonna be released in a few days anyway! There are people who just read the magazine for free in convenience stores!”
With a twisted grin, Yaguchi ranted to himself.
“The author's rolling in cash with how much this manga’s selling, right? And yet they pull a stunt like this just to stop me from making a few bucks?”
He figured there was no way they'd ever trace him back to one of the few printing shops scattered across Japan.
The last incident had proved that. Responding like this—putting out a counter-leak—basically screamed, ‘We have no clue who the leaker is.’
Fueled by spite over being rendered obsolete, Yaguchi decided to dump his own pirated scans online.
And in the post?
['D note' Leak—Official (nah) Bootleg Camrip]
ㄴDid you record this with your foot? Totally unreadable.
ㄴHonestly? This is just sad now.
ㄴReported.
ㄴIf you're gonna post this trash, at least get a decent shot. What were you even hoping to get out of this?
The comments were brutal.
The images were so blurry—thanks to the heightened surveillance—that they were totally unreadable. But Yaguchi didn’t care.
As long as he could ‘hurt’ the people he blamed for putting him in this position, that was enough.
“They’re never gonna catch me anyway.”
Giggling at his monitor like some cartoon villain, Yaguchi didn’t see what was coming.
“Mr. Yaguchi, you are under arrest for violating copyright law and the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.”
The next day, he was arrested at the printing shop by police.
＊ ＊ ＊
“You’re saying there ‘is’ a way to catch them?”
This was during the time when the ‘D Note’ leak had just become public, and the video production in response was underway.
Jung Junhyuk brought a special proposal to the editor-in-chief.
“Have you heard of something called a watermark?”
“I know it's a design used to prevent counterfeiting in paper money… wait—are you suggesting…?”
Junhyuk gave a sly smile and nodded.
“If we embed different watermarks in the spaces between panels for each regional printing facility, we’ll be able to identify exactly which location the leak came from.”
Now, this sort of tactic is common practice. But back in the early 2000s, when security and traceability were still lacking, it was practically unheard of.
“Judging by the photos from the last leak, the culprit didn’t have enough time or freedom to photograph every single page. So we ask each printing facility to keep especially tight watch just for this week. If a leak still happens…”
“Then we’ll know which facility it came from and catch the culprit there.”
“Exactly. They’ll probably assume they weren’t caught and arrogantly walk in with a phone or a small camera. If we do surprise inspections using something like metal detectors during work hours, they ‘will’ get caught.”
And just like that—
“Gotcha, you little thief.”
Using the unique watermark pattern, they pinpointed the exact printing facility the leak originated from.
Under the pretense of a surprise inspection during a shift, they used a metal detector and caught Yaguchi red-handed—he’d hidden a miniature camera in his inner jacket pocket.
They straight-up found the leaked D Note files on his devices.
He was immediately arrested on the spot, caught in the act.
＊ ＊ ＊
- It was revealed that Yaguchi had been selling leaked data from the printing facility to acquaintances and third parties, so the police immediately tracked down the buyers…
“Honestly, it should have been us thinking about this, not the author. We put too much burden on you.”
The editor-in-chief bowed his head slightly as he spoke to me, the news quietly playing on the TV in my studio.
“If you hadn’t put so much effort into the video production, it would have been hard to create such high-quality work.”
“I’m glad it was helpful.”
The editor smiled faintly and extended his hand to me.
“I’ve truly learned a lot. This incident will positively influence how we handle similar cases in the future. As someone responsible for supporting the work, I can’t thank you enough.”
Learned a lot, huh?
For the editor-in-chief himself to come all the way to an author’s personal studio and say this—maybe those destined for greatness are different from the start.
“It was only possible because you helped so much from the side. I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
I shook the editor’s hand in return, expressing my gratitude.
Aizawa Touji.
He was the man who, when I was promoted to deputy editor at Shueisha in my previous life, had been rumored to be the next candidate for company president.
＊ ＊ ＊
Meanwhile…
▶ In Kanna’s case.
“Hoohoo… How was it? Did I do well?”
Kanna, breathless from nerves, hopped into Matsuda’s car and asked Jung Junhyuk.
“Hmm… so-so?”
Jung Junhyuk gave his honest answer, causing Kanna to puff out her cheeks.
“Hahaha. Hasegawa-san really did great. She picked up the character so quickly that the recording finished earlier than scheduled.”
“Hehehe…”
Matsuda, sitting in the driver’s seat instead of Jung Junhyuk, praised her, making Kanna grin widely.
Truth is, since ‘D Note’ was one of Kanna’s favorite works, she had already imagined herself acting in it and had practiced alone, so she learned the role fast—but decided it was better to just roll with it.
“Maybe she got ahead by imagining herself acting in the live-action movie version?”
That was before some annoyingly perceptive time traveler cracked her secret with a joke.
“……”
Jung Junhyuk and Kanna exchanged looks while stifling their laughter.
“……”
“……”
When people realize their darkest inner thoughts have been exposed, they usually react in one of two ways—
Either fully deny it,
Or...
“Uh…?”
That day, Jung Junhyuk looked directly into the eyes of someone who seriously wanted to kill him.
⋮
▶ In Matsuda’s case
“Where should we upload the video? If we post it on the Weekly Shōnen Jump site, no one will probably watch it.”
“Wait, can you leave it to me for a bit?”
Standing nearby wrestling with the deputy editor and Hashida, Matsuda took hold of the mouse and keyboard.
And then...
[wwww Official leak of ‘D Note’ next week’s published chapter]
[Official leak out! But it’s a video!]
ㄴWanna see the official leak video? (link)
ㄴ??? What is this?
ㄴIt’s an official leak directly from the editorial department with some content from next Monday’s ‘D Note’ release.
“Heha, Hehahaha!”
Matsuda, who had sneaked into the community, quickly poured fuel on the fire, stirring up a buzz. Meanwhile, Hashida and the deputy editor stepped away from the computer, keeping their distance.
Afterward, Matsuda suddenly felt a gap growing between himself and the others.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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