In Tsukasa Higashino’s previous life, the best-known Japanese manga publishers were probably Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan—the companies commonly referred to as Japan’s “Big Three” manga publishers.
But why were Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan specifically considered the Big Three of manga magazines?
The reason was simple.
A Japanese publishing company could never sustain its entire business through manga magazines alone.
To generate more revenue, the so-called Big Three didn’t just publish manga magazines; they also released many other kinds of books.
Take Shogakukan from Tsukasa’s previous world, for example.
A significant part of its publishing business centered on educational books for elementary-school students.
Manga was only one of its many sources of revenue.
Strictly speaking, the Big Three weren’t even necessarily the most profitable publishers in Japan in Tsukasa’s previous life.
They were simply the giants of the manga industry.
Unfortunately, this was a parallel world.
There was no Shueisha.
No Kodansha.
And no Shogakukan.
Naturally, that also meant there was no Weekly Shonen Jump, the undisputed heavyweight of hot-blooded shonen manga.
But back to the point.
In this parallel world, the positions occupied by those three publishers had instead been taken by Iwakado Publishing, Mashiku Books, and Urashima Publishing.
Iwakado Publishing could essentially be viewed as a combination of Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan.
Its main focus was popular shonen manga, particularly mysteries, action series, and hot-blooded adventure stories.
Mashiku Books, meanwhile, leaned more heavily toward science fiction and romance-oriented shojo manga.
And finally, there was Urashima Publishing.
That was the company to which Tsukasa had mailed his Ring manuscript a few days earlier.
Urashima Publishing specialized primarily in mystery, suspense, and horror manga.
Its Weekly Shiver and monthly Forbidden Space were both famous throughout Japan as magazines devoted to horror manga.
Recently, however, Urashima Publishing had fallen on hard times.
Its flagship manga series, The Figure Reflected in the Camera, had just ended.
Worse, the industry was currently suffering through a drought of strong scripts and original stories, leaving the publisher without any truly outstanding horror manga to take its place.
For now, Urashima was desperately pouring resources into a horror manga called The Doll Room, hoping to elevate it into the company’s next flagship series.
But anyone with a discerning eye could see that The Doll Room simply wasn’t good enough to carry an entire magazine.
Its quality could only be described as decent.
As a result, the overall sales of Urashima Publishing’s manga magazines had been steadily declining.
That was the power of a flagship title—a brand recognition.
In Tsukasa’s previous world, mention One Piece, Naruto, or Dragon Ball and many people would immediately think of Shueisha and Weekly Shonen Jump.
But take away those flagship manga, and the magazine’s influence would inevitably suffer.
Even so, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse.
Urashima Publishing remained one of the three giants of the manga industry.
There was no question about that.
Recently, a publisher called Fuji Publishing had risen rapidly and was beginning to show signs of carving out a place for itself alongside the Big Three in the manga-magazine market.
But for now, those were only signs.
Tsukasa’s choice remained Urashima Publishing, one of the established three giants.
After all, Urashima had the experience and prestige of a major publisher, along with extensive publishing resources and distribution channels.
Submitting his work there was easily the safest bet.
As for whether Tsukasa had confidence in Ring?
That was hardly even a question.
Of course he did.
Ring’s reputation in his previous world spoke for itself.
When the film had been released in Japan, it had crushed the movies competing against it at the box office.
Made on an extremely modest budget, it went on to become a massive commercial success and a major domestic hit.
In its own corner of the Japanese film industry, it had practically marched around with a blade in hand, cutting down the competition without finding a worthy opponent.
Who knew?
Perhaps Tsukasa’s Ring could even knock Urashima Publishing’s current would-be flagship, The Doll Room, off its pedestal.
Besides, two or three days had already passed since he submitted the manuscript.
Urashima Publishing should be contacting him soon.
As Tsukasa thought about this, he glanced at Chihaya Higashino sitting across from him.
At the moment, Chihaya was clutching his mobile phone and enthusiastically tapping away at a game of Snake.
She was completely absorbed in it.
Every time the snake changed direction on the screen, her entire body tilted along with it.
By 2003, mobile phones were already widespread in Japan, though they were still the old-fashioned, bulky flip phones with rounded bodies.
Originally, Tsukasa and Chihaya had each owned a phone so they could contact one another.
But Chihaya had accidentally dropped and broken hers, and it still hadn’t been repaired.
So Tsukasa had given her his own phone to use instead.
He had even saved his homeroom teacher’s number in it.
If anything happened, Chihaya could call him immediately.
That was the minimum precaution Tsukasa was willing to accept.
Otherwise, he simply couldn’t feel comfortable leaving her home alone.
“All right, I’m heading to school, Chihaya-nee.
Make sure you stay home and take care of yourself, okay?”
Having finished eating, Tsukasa stood and said goodbye.
“Mm!
I know.” Chihaya waved him away.
“Hurry up and go to school, Tsukasa!
I’ll protect the house!”
As she spoke, she nodded vigorously, as though trying to give herself a little more courage.
Even so, just to be safe, Tsukasa checked the locks on all the doors and windows one more time.
Only after confirming that everything was secure did he turn toward the entryway.
It really was about time he left.
Ring, ring, ring—
Just then, the landline telephone sitting near the shoe cabinet by the door began to ring.
Hm?
Tsukasa reached over and picked up the receiver.
“Hello?
Who is this?”
Ever since tragedy had struck the Higashino family, hardly anyone called their home anymore.
Even the old friends of Tsukasa’s parents seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.
Aside from briefly appearing at the funeral, none of them had been seen again.
Japan had always placed considerable importance on personal relationships, but unless someone was a truly inseparable lifelong friend, most friendships only went so far.
These days, the people who still called the Higashino residence were mostly salespeople trying to sell newspaper subscriptions, health products, or something equally uninteresting.
“Excuse me, may I speak with Higashino-sensei?”
A young woman’s voice came through the receiver.
Higashino-sensei?
After a brief pause, the woman spoke again.
“My name is Koharu Hosokawa.
I’m an editor for Weekly Shiver at Urashima Publishing.
May I confirm that I’m speaking with Higashino-sensei?”
Koharu Hosokawa?
An editor from Urashima Publishing?
Tsukasa immediately became alert.
Had the results finally come in for the Ring manuscript he had submitted a few days ago?
“Yes.
I’m Tsukasa Higashino, the author of Ring.
You said you’re an editor from Urashima Publishing?” he asked in return.
“Yes, I’m an editor with Urashima Publishing.
I’m calling to discuss the details regarding your submission, Ring.”