Chapter 34 Distance

Chapter 34: Distance

At the start of October, Hoshino Haruna received some good news and some bad news.

The good news was that the shoujo manga *Ao no Kanata* she had resubmitted after resetting had finally been accepted by a magazine publisher! This meant she was about to kick off her career as a serialized manga artist! It was a super—historic breakthrough! On the day she received the news, Hoshino shared it with everyone she knew.

As for the bad news... it was that Miyahara Maki's work still hadn't passed.

Hoshino was pretty surprised when she heard this, but Miyahara herself remained remarkably calm and even comforted her back.

"It's okay, I actually expected this result," Miyahara said softly. "After all, I'm not like you, Haruna."

They had been different from the very beginning.

Ever since she got Hoshino's application to join the club and the portfolio that came with it, Miyahara had already picked up on that. And as their relationship deepened over time, she became even more certain of it—

Hoshino Haruna had talent, passion—what she lacked was only systematic study and training. Once she filled in that missing piece, Miyahara believed she would surely achieve something in manga.

As for herself...

In her three years at Karasuno High School, she had been the president of the Manga Club but barely had any works she could really show off. Every submission she sent out sank without a trace, and even the magazines she exhibited at the cultural festival—barely anyone even looked at them...

"That's not true!" Hoshino shot back. "Didn't you get invited to the Tokyo training camp too, senpai?"

That at least meant that Miyahara-senpai could keep walking down the manga path just like she could!

But Miyahara simply shook her head with a forced smile.

"Haruna, do you remember? When we received the invitation to the training camp, you got a fee waiver," Miyahara Maki said calmly. "I didn't get one."

So even in this thing that seemed to put us on the same level, there was still a gap between us.

"Well... I know, I know," Miyahara said, rubbing Hoshino's head with a smile, like always. "I was told a long time ago that I don't have the talent to become a professional manga artist. I just couldn't accept it, no matter how hard I tried, so I kept holding on until now, until today..."

But now, it was time to stop.

Since the manga path was clearly a dead end, she could only do what countless ordinary high school students did—focus on her studies again. Once this semester is over, she would gradually hand over the club stuff and focus on preparing for entrance exams.

"But still, I'm really glad that you came to me before to submit together, and that we attended the training camp together afterward," Miyahara sincerely thanked her. "Although the result wasn't what I hoped for... think of it as my final goodbye to manga."

Miyahara said it lightly, like it was no big deal. But to Hoshino Haruna, it hurt more than anything.

"Miyahara-senpai!"

Just as she was about to go, Hoshino called out to her.

"I know this might sound full of myself, but... but..." Hoshino mustered her courage and said, "That's not what manga is about!"

Miyahara: Huh?

"Only the best artists can enjoy it, only the top ones deserve to be part of it—that's not what manga is about!" Hoshino said firmly. "Not everyone has to become a pro manga artist, but when it comes to manga, everyone's equal! As long as we open the same manga, the same world opens up in front of us. Whenever we want, we can grab a pen, no matter who we are or how many skills we have. In that sense, manga is very fair—it never gives up on anyone who really loves it. So—

"Don't give up on your own story, Miyahara-senpai!"

...

After saying all this in one breath, Hoshino's chest was heaving. It wasn't until she saw Miyahara's surprised look that she realized what she had done.

"Th-that..." Hoshino blushed a little in embarrassment. "Sorry, I said something weird on my own again..."

But Miyahara seemed to not hear her, stood there for a while, then finally let out a laugh.

"Ah... Haruna, you're just too cute." She smiled and rubbed Hoshino's head again.

Before parting, she said a sincere "thank you" to Hoshino and promised she would find her own story, no matter what form it took.

"When that day comes, you have to be my reader, okay?" Miyahara winked at her.

Hoshino looked at her and nodded firmly.

"Of course," she agreed without hesitation.

***

Although Miyahara Maki seemed very calm about giving up on becoming a professional manga artist, Hoshino Haruna couldn't process the news for a long time. After all, she had always thought her senpai could keep walking the same path as her.

During a break while discussing a problem with Kazami Kaoru, Hoshino started zoning out again.

"Five centimeters, so it's five centimeters..." Hoshino muttered, staring at the diagram next to the test paper. "Weird, I can't even tell from the picture—are point A and point P really that far apart?"

"Of course, because this is solid geometry. The distance on paper doesn't count," Kazami explained.

"Oh, right..."

Kazami: ?

It seemed like Hoshino wasn't talking about the same thing.

"Um, Hoshino-san," she decided to ask, "are you sure you mean the distance between point A and point P?"

Surprisingly, Hoshino flat out denied it.

"No," she shook her head. "I was thinking about the gap between dreams and reality."

Kazami: ...?

That's quite the topic jump!

"Um, Hoshino-san," Kazami tried again, "didn't your manga just get accepted by a magazine?"

Shouldn't that mean she had taken a big step closer to her dream? Why was she looking so gloomy?

"Well, but this is just a start..." Hoshino said in a rare low-energy tone.

If the early reader feedback turns out bad, she might have to heavily cut down the subsequent chapters and hastily finish it—or worse, the whole work could be axed... Ugh, no!

Then everything would go back to zero, and she'd have to go through the whole cycle of drawing like crazy and getting rejected repeatedly until one day she would have to give up on manga just like Miyahara-senpai... Ugh, even more no!

"Sigh, if only I could be as amazing as you, Kazami-san..." Hoshino sighed.

If it were Kazami-san, she would probably "shoom" and learn anything instantly! And if she ran into any trouble, she'd "snap" and solve it right away! Even a dream as distant as getting into a top medical school would be just as easy as "getting first place on a pop quiz" for her!

Hearing this, Kazami couldn't help but cough.

"That's way too exaggerated... I'm not that terrifying..." Kazami quickly defended herself. "And my desire to become a doctor comes from my own experiences—it's different from your desire to become a manga artist, Hoshino-san."

"Huh?"

"It's hard to compare which mindset is better... but generally speaking, I think most people would prefer the latter. That kind of drive, fueled by genuine passion from the heart—it's very rare and very precious, you know."

"Huhh??"

Really? Hoshino wasn't quite sure.

After all, she had always been charging ahead purely on instinct—her distance from her dream hadn't shrunk much, but she had gotten plenty of sarcastic remarks. Though her passion for manga was enough to keep her drawing, could this impulsive, irrational feeling really be called rare, even precious?

Could such a feeling truly bridge the gap between ideals and reality?

The class bell suddenly rang, cutting off the conversation that shouldn't have been happening during problem-solving time.

Hoshino hadn't expected to resolve such a fundamental question in the ten-minute break anyway, so she simply set it aside. Knowing herself, she'd probably forget about it in a few days and go back to burying herself in drawing.

And that's exactly what happened.

But this time, what shifted her focus away from her worries wasn't time, but an activity announcement—

*

During a break three days later, the class president of Class 1-3 announced a field trip. -TBC- Author's note: A simple transitional chapter! Getting ready to start a new chapter (rubbing hands).