The controversy surrounding the story of "Emiya Kiritsugu" was undoubtedly much greater than that of "Weathering with You".
Akira was well aware of this.
After reading this story, even his manga assistant, Hayato, wanted to rebel against him, let alone the readers who were his bread and butter.
Therefore, on the afternoon of the day the latest issue of Shonen Jump was released, he went online to scout out the situation.
As expected, the discussion surrounding "Emiya Kiritsugu" was quite chaotic.
Some people liked Kiritsugu, while others hated him;
Some sympathized with Kiritsugu's experiences and understood his choices and pain;
Others did not understand his choices and mocked or cursed him;
And the two sides with opposing opinions naturally began to argue and debate.
At the same time, some people pointed straight to the essence and chose to open fire on him.
"That really was a hearty exchange."
Akira, who had anticipated this, sighed.
However, for him, Kiritsugu's current situation was not yet at its worst.
As for the worst time, it would certainly be at the end of Fz, or rather the beginning of Fsn, where Kiritsugu lost the person he loved deeply once again, while his ideals were completely shattered.
So for him, it was actually okay. Anyway, in this situation, the discussion about the Fsn main story on the forum had faded quite a bit.
Of course, it might also be because Caster, who had just appeared in this chapter, hadn't revealed much information, so there wasn't much room for discussion.
As for the subtle interaction between Matou Sakura and Tohsaka Rin, before Matou Sakura's true identity was exposed, it would probably only be seen as a scene of them fighting for favor.
However, whether Matou Sakura's true identity would be exposed was another matter.
Besides that, there were also some relatively mild discussions, mainly guessing the connection between "Emiya Kiritsugu" and Fsn.
That is, was this person, Kiritsugu, really the adoptive father of Shirou in Fsn?
After all, the young Kiritsugu in the first chapter could be said to just have the same name, but the grown-up Kiritsugu looked exactly like the Kiritsugu in Fsn, so it was hard not to draw associations.
Akira hadn't intended to deliberately keep people in suspense about this.
In fact, during his conversation with Eiichiro Oda some time ago, Oda had asked him this question, and he had answered it.
It's just that he didn't know if it would be edited out when the time came.
And speaking of the conversation, one had to mention 『JumpFesta』.
For readers of Shonen Jump, especially those who had obtained tickets to the event, this was probably the most worthy thing to pay attention to right now.
After all, this was the grand event exclusive to their Shonen Jump!
Thus, time quickly arrived at the third day after the release of "Weekly Shonen Jump" Issue No. 1.
On December 17th, the event finally officially began.
Although it was still 1999, the official name for this event was 『JumpFesta 2000』.
Well, let's just take it as looking forward to the future.
According to Shonen Jump, 『JumpFesta』 was a carnival held by the official to give back to fans, so admission was completely free.
As for the admission tickets, they were randomly drawn through the collected questionnaires.
Although it was only the first event, the maximum number of people Shonen Jump planned for this event was 80,000, which was already a fairly large-scale exhibition.
However, compared to the scale of 『ComicMarket』, the largest doujin exhibition in Japan and even the world, there was still a big gap.
This summer's 『ComicMarket』 had accepted 400,000 visitors over three days, which was an average of more than 130,000 people per day, which was simply terrifying.
Having said that, although an exhibition with 80,000 participants sounded like a lot, compared to Shonen Jump's millions of readers, it didn't seem like that many.
According to Hisashi, nearly 80,000 tickets were drawn very quickly, leaving only a very small surplus for their internal staff to use.
The venue for 『JumpFesta』 was selected at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center, the same venue used by 『ComicMarket』, which was more than enough to accommodate 80,000 people.
The earliest admission time for the venue was 9:00 AM, and the place where he lived was more than half an hour's drive from the Tokyo International Exhibition Center.
So, at 8:00 AM on the day of the event, Akira went out.
『Akira』: "I'm down."
『Rin』: "Okay."
Rin not only replied in a timely manner, but also went out in a timely manner.
When the elevator he was riding in descended to the floor where Rin lived, it stopped, the elevator door opened, and Rin's figure fell into his line of sight.
"Good morning, Mochizuki-kun."
"Morning."
The other party walked into the elevator with light steps, stood side by side next to him, and greeted him with a chuckle.
While responding, he carefully observed the other party's outfit today through the mirror of the elevator door, which instantly brightened his eyes—
The other party was wearing a camel beret today, and her top was also a camel duffle coat, paired with a beige turtleneck knit lining, and a cashmere scarf.
She wore a dark gray pleated skirt on her lower body and a pair of black mid-calf boots on her feet.
The finishing touch was the thick black pantyhose between the pleated skirt and the black mid-calf boots, which perfectly set off Rin's straight and smooth leg shape, making them look even slimmer.
This outfit was not flashy, but looked exquisite and elegant, and was very pleasing to the eye.
Compared to Rin's usual attire, she was obviously carefully dressed today.
Especially those straight long legs wrapped in thick black pantyhose, which even made him unable to look away for a moment.
However——
"Aren't you cold wearing only pantyhose?"
He asked with some curiosity.
————?!
Why was this the first thing he paid attention to?!
Rin, who had originally been waiting for the other party's evaluation with a bit of nervousness and expectation, felt her cheeks flatten immediately upon hearing this. After giving him a coquettish glare, she explained sullenly: "Because they are thickened, it's okay."
In fact, it was a little cold if she was outdoors, but it was still within an acceptable range, and it would be completely fine once she was indoors.
More importantly, of course, was the aesthetics.
Because today was the first time meeting Akira's friends, she of course hoped to leave a good impression on others and gain their approval.
However, they were not lovers yet, so it seemed a bit strange to talk about approval.
In short, as a person who was not very good at dressing up and usually wore whatever was simple and comfortable, she had thought about this outfit for a long time before finally deciding on it.
She even called her mother for help.
And such a painstaking effort in dressing up, in the end, the first thing Akira noticed was the question of "is it cold", which made her feel a little discouraged.
So, she simply gave up and took the initiative to attack: "So, how does Mochizuki-kun think? Will it be a bit inappropriate to wear?"
"Hmm."
If he couldn't understand such a near-explicit statement, he would really be destined to be single.
"How could that be, I think it looks great."
This was his true thought, but it sounded a bit too much like a platitude when spoken aloud.
So he thought about it, and simply went for it, confessing his inner thoughts with some embarrassment: "It makes people unable to look away."
"——!!"
Wait a minute!
Wasn't he just like a block of wood a moment ago?!
How could he say something so unfair all of a sudden?!
Rin's cheeks turned red instantly, and she lowered her head shyly, but the corners of her mouth buried in the scarf couldn't stop rising.
"Thank you."
She tried to remain calm and responded softly.
At the same time, noticing the change in her mood, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart:
Rin, you are hopeless!