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Chapter 1

December 29, 2014

"And the winner of the Monthly Girl Step category of the Shimizu Publishing House Contest is... Hiratai Shizuka, with her story 'Break The Ice'!"

A young woman with dark red bob-cut hair and glasses was stunned at the announcement. She was among a crowd of around three hundred people in a large conference room at Tokyo Big Sight, having attended Winter Comiket 2014. As she nervously stood up, the crowd around her clapped and cheered. Under her breath, she whispered to herself, "Holy shit... Holy shit, this is happening..."

"Come on up," said a man in his forties in a business suit with a red tie. As she walked up to the stage where a group of executives of Shimizu, a large publishing house in Japan, were sitting at a table, the announcer bowed to her and presented her with a plaque. "Here you go, Hiratai-san."

"Th- Thank you," she stammered out as she bowed to him before being handed the plaque. The two then shook hands as she walked over to the other people on stage. As she bowed and shook all of their hands, she began to get a bit more nervous when she saw the last person in line. She thought to herself, "The last person in line is Anzai Michi, the author of Uncontrollable Battle. He's one of my favorite mangaka, and now... Now I'm on stage with him!"

"Congratulations," Michi said to Shizuka, snapping her out of her thoughts. "You deserve it, Hiratai-san."

"Thank you very much, Anzai-sensei," she replied with a bow before the two shook hands.

"You seem a bit nervous," he said to her in a quieter voice with a smile. "Don't be. You're fine."

"I can't help it," she admitted. "I'm a big fan of you."

"It's fine, Hiratai-san. We'll be coworkers soon anyway."

"Thank you." Shizuka gave him one last bow before exiting the stage, filled with excitement and joy from having met one of her heroes. "That was amazing," she exclaimed in her thoughts. "I got to stand next to him! God, I hope I didn't fangirl too much!"

...

Later on in the night, Shizuka and eight other winners of that year's contest had a private dinner with the same judges of the contest, which consisted of two executives, two editors, two mangaka, and two novelists who all worked for Shimizu. All of them were in a joyous mood from having won, which meant that all of their works would now be published as either manga or as light novels by Shimizu. As Shizuka drank from a glass of beer, one of the other contestants, a man a few years younger than her with light brown hair, remarked, "Thank God I turned twenty a few days ago. I can drink with the rest of you."

"No way," she replied as she set her glass down. "You're that young? I thought I was the youngest person here."

"I am, actually," he chuckled. "I've been writing my light novel for the past three years, and I finally had a break."

"Nice, man. You know, speaking of age, I wonder who the oldest winner is..."

"It would probably be Azumi-san," the young man said, referring to a man sitting a bit further down the table. "I think he's in his late thirties."

"Wow. Didn't he win in the Lilywhite Storm category?"

"He did. I read his manga entry, and the art's really good. You can tell he's been doing this for a long time."

"Hmmm..." Shizuka began to get curious about the older man, whose name was Keiichi Azumi. "Was he ever a doujinshi artist? I swear, when I read his entry, the art seemed familiar. I've been to Comiket a few times before, so maybe I saw his art there."

"I think he was," the young man agreed before turning to Keiichi. "Azumi-san?"

Keiichi turned to the young man, whose name was Takeo Furihata, having heard his name called. "Yes, Furihata-san?"