The Case Of Yokozawa Takafumi Vol 6

Chapter 5

The week seemed interminable, but at long last, Friday arrived. With overtime practically every single day this week, Yokozawa had found himself heading home on the last train and collapsing into bed, only to repeat the exercise when he came to the next morning.

While he'd made every effort to get into the office as early as possible each morning, he still had far more on his plate than he could handle. Those around him were trying to help as best they could, but everyone was already working their hardest, just as busy as he was, so complaining was useless.

If he could just make it through this month, things ought to settle down to some extent. Once the fair itself started, he'd mostly be working on support for the festivities.

For now, though, there were fortunately no events scheduled this weekend, nor would he have to come into work. Hectic as the weekdays had been, he could probably take it easy now. He'd be able to see Sorata for the first time in a week, and on Sunday, he had plans to go out with Kirishima and Hiyori, just the three of them. When he let himself focus on these things, he found that the fatigue didn't bother him nearly as badly.

Apparently a piece of Hiyori's that she'd drawn in art class had won an award in a ward-wide competition and was going to be on display at the Ward Office, so they'd decided to head down to the office to see it on Sunday.

Today, though, he'd go back to his apartment, with plans to finish up any housework he'd neglected by the next morning before heading over to the Kirishimas' place the following evening. Thinking he might prepare Hiyori's favorites for Saturday night, he started to plan a menu out in his head as he stepped off the elevator.

He was currently making his way to the Japun editing division, with business involving handing over some sample materials for an advertisement as well as discussing promotional activities connected with the upcoming movie.

"—Crap!"

"Ah, I'm sorry!"

He'd ducked out of the way to avoid a collision with a passing coworker, swinging to the side, and wound up ramming his shoulder into a stack of boxes. The whole column had been in danger of toppling, when he managed to save it just in time.

"Are you all right, Yokozawa-san?"

"More or less. How about tidying up this place a bit, hm?"

"We've been meaning to get around to that, but..." The editor who'd addressed him gave a wry smile before slipping away. The editing floor was always a wreck—whether it was the shoujo manga division with Emerald or the shounen manga area of Japun. He supposed, though, that the literature division wouldn't be all that much different in this respect.

There were posters plastered all over the walls here and there, and back issues of magazines were piled up into corners. Pretty much all of the desk tops were a sorry sight as well—and while Kirishima's desk was reasonably tidy, there was still so much stuffon it.

Still, thanks to most of the manuscripts having been converted to data format now, much of the physical clutter had been reduced. However, that meant that overseeing the manuscripts still in physical form was a very important job in the editing division. These manuscript pages, drawn by the mangaka themselves, were naturally one of a kind, with no other original copies in the whole world. They were invaluable as far as the publishing house saw them—as well as the authors' assets.

"Where's Kirishima-san?" he asked Hitomi as he passed by, unable to pick him out on the editing floor. With his light hair color and trademark black-rimmed glasses, Hitomi always seemed at-ease, wherever he went.

"Oh, Yokozawa-san. I believe Kirishima-san should be returning from a meeting soon, but perhaps it's run a bit long. Are you in a rush?"

Yokozawa flicked a glance to the whiteboard, noticing the word 'meeting' clearly scrawled next to Kirishima's name there—though it should have ended some 20 minutes earlier by now.