Hosokawa Koharu has been working with Higashino Tsukasa for nearly a year, and I thought I already had some understanding of his steady and calm temperament.

But when she heard his nonchalant tone today, she knew it... I still underestimated the psychological endurance of Tsukasa Higashino.

No wonder I won the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award... This kind of big heart is much more stable than some comic book writers in their thirties and forties, right?

"Higashino-sensei, you know? I just learned about this from the editor-in-chief... You are..."

sighed and sighed, but Hosokawa Koharu was still a little curious and asked.

"It was Ozawa-sensei from Iwakaku Press who told me."

"Ozawada... No wonder..."Hosokawa Koharu couldn't help but nod when he heard this, but he was still a little confused.

Ozawada, as the No. 1 thug of Iwakaku Publishing House, was not surprised by Hosokawa Koharu to be the first to know about this, but why did he tell Tsukasa Higashino the news? Doesn't this give him a chance to prepare in advance?

Could it be that the corner of Higashinoji was dug over there?

It's a real deal.

After all, Iwakaku Publishing House and Mozuki Bookstore have been a joint venture for a long time, essentially wearing a pair of pants, plus they have deep pockets and are also very influential in the industry - maybe they really let Ozawada play the emotional card and dig up the corner of Higashino Tsukasa.

But think about it... Tsukasa Higashino is not the kind of person who throws himself into the enemy without saying hello... And if you want to join the enemy, it's impossible to submit to her again.

Hosokawa Koharu's thinking is indeed more mature, but she is also a woman, so she is naturally prone to thinking about things and things.

"It's true that Mr. Ozawa took the initiative to tell me, but he has no other intentions, so he wants to make friends with me." Higashino Tsukasa explained to Hosokawa Koharu what Ozawada said to him at that time, and finally made Hosokawa Koharu acceptable.

Many people may think that this is a trivial matter, and there is no need to explain.

However, when working as a team, the most important thing is to trust each other, and there is no need to hide such small things.

"I see..."Hosokawa Koharu nodded, and after expressing his understanding, he left this matter behind: "Compared to this matter... Mr. Higashino, do you already have a countermeasure? Have you figured out what you're going to do? ”

"There's nothing to do." Higashino replied with a smile: "If you insist on saying it, it depends on your ability." ”

"But... Higashino-sensei, don't you really matter? The opponent is not like last time, there is only one Ken Komori... This time it's a group fight. "After all, Hosokawa Koharu is a Japanese working woman, and it is easy to think in the weak side of this issue.

The two major societies are rivals... This is no joke.

It's just that the sales volume of a single volume is a little lost, and the most important thing is that Higashino Shibei was hit so hard that even his sharpness was smoothed out.

As for Hosokawa Koharu's concern, Higashino Tsukasa laughed and replied calmly: "It's okay." ”

This is actually a very ordinary answer, but for some reason, Hosokawa Koharu has nothing to say, and then she also laughs dumbly: "That's right, after all, it's Higashino-sensei." ”

Just like Tsukasa Higashino and Ken Komori singles in the ring... The results that Tsukasa Higashino came up with always surprised Hosokawa Koharu for a long time.

He never let himself down.

It must be the same this time.

This is not an idea that a mature editor should have, and Hosokawa Koharu is not mature, but it also means that she is more motivated than a mature and conservative editor.

Many times Tsukasa Higashino's request would be rejected if he were to be replaced by another editor, and she would be the only one who would try to understand Tsukasa Higashino's thoughts and stand behind him.

And blindly retreating will only be beaten by people as a turtle with a shrunken head, and people will only step on people who are weaker than him.

Hosokawa Koharu doesn't want to be a turtle soft egg that is stepped on, so even if the results of Higashinoji's single-volume sales this time won't be too good, she has to fully support him!

Competition is competition, there is nothing to be afraid of, see if you chop off my head or I cut off your dog's head.

Mr. Higashino, who I was in charge of, set a lot of records! Compared to your pillar authors, they also have an advantage! In that case, why should I be afraid?

She swallowed the persuasion lines she had thought of into her stomach and digested them, and then she got to the point: "Mr. Higashino, you just said that you wanted me to read the draft of the new manga... Have you already drawn it? ”

"It's really finished, and I've prepared a draft storyboard for the first five episodes." Higashino replied without hesitation.

The draft storyboard of "Unnatural Death" is not difficult to draw, but it is a bit difficult to set the characters and learn the common sense of forensics, otherwise it would not have been completed until now.

"I see... So be it now. Does Higashino-sensei have time now? I'll go over it. ”

"Hmm... I'm at home right now. Tsukasa Higashino replied.

I have to say that there are still a lot of high school holidays in Japan, spring vacation, summer vacation, winter vacation, scattered and three consecutive holidays, and the May Day Golden Week.

Kita-Gijuku High School is now on spring break, almost two weeks until April 56, and Japanese high school students who go to the entrance examination go to the general entrance test, and after passing, they can go directly to the university.

"Then I'll come here."

Do what you want, Hosokawa Koharu is barely a man of action, and after packing up her makeup and clothes, she left the editorial office and went directly to Higashino's house.

Higashino Tsukasa obviously didn't expect Hosokawa Koharu to be so proactive, he looked at his phone and smiled, then turned his head to look at the draft storyboard he had placed on the table.

Unlike the last "Winner is Justice", this time Tsukasa Higashino has mastered the skills of using shadow painting, and he is in a particularly good state when he draws a draft storyboard... To put it a little cheesily, it's 'hot hands'.

If nothing else... There is a high probability that it will be possible this time!

Tsukasa Higashino just sat at home and played a game with Chihaya Higashino for almost half an hour, and Hosokawa Koharu had already come to the door.

"Higashino-sensei... What about the manuscript? Hosokawa Koharu asked as soon as he entered the door.

"It's on the stove table over here." Higashino touched Higashino Chihaya's head and got up and walked to the stove table.

His game character has long since died, and he has been watching Higashino Chihaya play just now.

"It's rude." Hosokawa Koharu said a polite word, then picked up the draft storyboard on the table, and read the title at first glance.

"Unnatural death?"

I don't know what the title means.

Hosokawa Koharu spread out the draft storyboard and began to look at it one frame at a time.

She looked at it and sighed inexplicably.

Perhaps it is Tsukasa Higashino's background in painting, and the storyboard draft he handed in is actually very complete, and the thin strips of the characters are concise and clear, vivid, and look very comfortable at a glance.

Like other manga authors who are a little worse in drawing, you can only barely figure out the relationship between the characters when you look at his manga storyboard drafts, and it is definitely not as comfortable as Tsukasa Higashino.

Some people may question this, saying that you can still be a comic book author with weak drawing skills? But it's true, and the standard example is ONE, who drew "One Punch Man", and his 'minimalist lines' comic works are really impressive.

But this is not the time to sigh all the time for Higashino Division's painters.

Hosokawa Koharu concentrated, and began to look at it little by little, especially seriously.

Forensic doctor Mikoto Mitsumi works at UDI (Institute of Unnatural Death). Here, they receive many corpses of unknown causes of death every year.

Some are homicides, some are poisoning...

And to find out the cause of the unnatural death of these corpses and to speak for the deceased is the work of Mikoto Mitsumi and UDI.

This is a pretty standard mystery comic start.

Pull the character out for a walk first, and then move on to the first case at a fast pace.

Hosokawa Koharu's eyes are very vicious, and it can be seen at a glance that although the heroine Mikoto Mitsumi looks like a forensic doctor, she should play a role like a 'detective' in this manga, and in addition to other characters in UDI, clinical examination technician Yuko Tokai Hashiko, and recorder Rokuro Kube.

The stage and characters are all ready.

"Forensic detective comics, this feels a bit niche." Hosokawa Koharu muttered to himself.

Similarly, the role of the detective is set as the heroine, which is a bit wrong.

Although this is not very good for her to say, but for the role of forensic doctor and detective, it is better to position the gender as a male role... After all, which Sherlock Holmes have you ever seen that is female? In addition, Japanese women are already in a disadvantaged position in the workplace, which is also an important reason why women are not well defined as the protagonists of detective manga.

But just looking at it a little bit can't draw conclusions directly, so Hosokawa Koharu continued to watch.

In the first episode, Tsukasa Higashino explains the meaning of the manga title "Unnatural Death" - it refers to the deceased who are randomly named the cause of death and sent for cremation without being autopsied. Similarly, Hosokawa Koharu learned that Japan's dissection rate is among the lowest in the developed world.

But she didn't care about this sentence, it doesn't matter how the anatomy rate is and whether the storyline is interesting or not. As an editor, she only values storytelling.

Mr. and Mrs. Takano, who came to visit the Institute of Unnatural Death, expressed their intentions, and their son Takayashima Wataru was found to have died suddenly at home, and the cause of death was hastily attributed by the police to ischemic heart disease, but the main incidence of ischemic heart disease is the middle-aged and elderly people, who are already weak, and the police's perfunctory attitude is also unacceptable to the Takano couple, so they commissioned UDI to conduct an autopsy on Takayashima Wataru's body.

And so the story begins.

Mitsumi Mikoto Takayashima Wataru's body was autopsied after receiving the task, and it was found that his kidneys had symptoms of acute insufficiency, Mitsumi Mikoto suspected that it was poison that caused death, but just routine testing methods could not be added to detect what toxic substance, just when the investigation was deadlocked, news came that the female colleague who worked with Takayashima Wataru also died unexpectedly, and the cause of death was also unknown.

These two suspicious cases attract the attention of the heroine Mikoto Mitsumi, who leads her Misumi group to Wataru Koyashima's house to investigate, and then meets Mitsuko Baba, the first discoverer of Wataru Koyajima's body... According to Mikoto Mitsumi's follow-up understanding, Michiko Baba does not have an alibi, and she works in the chemical department of a company, so it is easy to get some poisonous drugs, and she is likely to be the suspect who killed Takayashima Wataru...

This is the end of the first episode of "Unnatural Death".

After reading this first sentence, Hosokawa Koharu rarely had no fluctuations in his heart.

Because... How to say it... This reasoning process is also too bland and too hasty.

It's the heroine and the forensic workers of her Sancheng group who asked casually, and at a casual glance, they found the suspicion of the horse farm road.

This conviction was too fast, and it felt childish.

A lot of very forceful foreshadowing in front of me left a tail in such a hurry, which is really disappointing.

This kind of quality is definitely not enough to beat those comic book authors of the two major publishing houses, and this comic is not very good.

But how to say it.

Mikoto Mitsumi's character creation is quite successful, at least it makes Hosokawa Koharu feel very immersed.

And the conviction in the front is so fast, it feels like there should be a flip in the back.

Hosokawa Koharu has unconditional confidence in Tsukasa Higashino!

Hosokawa Koharu opened the second episode of "Unnatural Death" and read it carefully.

Mikoto Mitsumi, who found out that something was wrong, launched a series of investigations against Michiko Baba, but these investigations did not work, and then there was a flip that Hosokawa Koharu cared about!

Michiko Baba is innocent, and the death of Wataru Koyajima is related to some kind of acute infectious disease in the Middle East!

Mikoto Mitsumi, who sensed the seriousness of the matter, immediately announced this fact, and at the same time told the director of UDI about this inference, but it was too late, the epidemic had already spread, and more than 80 people were hospitalized in just a few days...

The second episode has a total of twenty-one pages, which is stuffed to the brim, and this inference process can also be said to be reasonable, so Hosokawa Koharu also nodded with satisfaction.

It turns out that there is no real culprit at all, but Wataru Koyashima himself went to the Middle East and contracted some kind of infectious disease...

This unexpected flip made the whole plot much more comfortable, and at the same time, it also aroused Hosokawa Koharu's curiosity about the next plot.

What's next?

Wataru Koyashima has died, but infectious diseases are still spreading... Mr. and Mrs. Takano were soon cyberbullied and even received death threatening letters.

This dire situation is caused by Mikoto Mitsumi, how can she help the Takano couple?

Hosokawa Koharu picked up the third episode of "Unnatural Death", and only felt that the manga of Tsukasa Higashino was different from the comics such as "Winner is Justice" and "Midnight Bell", and the more I watched it, the more interesting it became, as if it was not a comic, but a TV series.

At least when Tsukasa Higashino drew a unit drama like "The Winner is Justice" before, he directly solved a unit drama in three words, not like "Unnatural Death", and also made a special trip to pave the way.

The evaluation of this manga has also changed from 'not very good' to 'yes, it should be very good'.

She flipped through the third sentence and looked at it.

This is about the helplessness of the Takaya couple who have been bullied on the Internet, and they can only suffer overwhelming scolding and accusations when they are old and lonely.

The atmosphere of this sentence is a bit heavy, sweeping away the more gentle and relaxed atmosphere of the previous "Unnatural Death", which is so depressed that Hosokawa Koharu is a little breathless.

But at this time, Michiko Baba, who was suspected of being the suspect killer in front of him, stood up and said that Takayashima Wataru was not that kind of person, and he must have come back after a check at the airport.

Michiko Baba's words brought a ray of hope and made Hosokawa Koharu's eyes shine!

And the reversal?!

Hosokawa Koharu was silent, but his evaluation of "Unnatural Death" in his heart went up a notch again, from 'okay' to 'it's a good work'.

Because of this reversal after reversal, she was a little out of breath.

She had just turned to the next page expectantly, and then her face fell—

Tsukasa Higashino...

It's just stuck here.