What was happening on the other side of the country, in the Tokyo metro area, might as well have been a different world - one Sora Kamakawa couldn't see from where he stood.
Maki's impotent rage, the way he festered because he couldn't swallow the success of some "nobody" out of Tokushima… Sora had no idea it even existed.
There was one thing he did know, though - because it was impossible not to. Yumi Noriko had been posting a relentless streak of long, pointed write-ups on NatsuYume - four a day, without missing - needling Makito with surgical sarcasm, like she refused to let the stain dry on the floor. And she was preparing something bigger, something designed to hit harder than any thread war ever could.
A polished video, with a title built to spread on its own.
[The Road to the Birth of "Natsume Yuujinchou"!]
The plan was simple, and brutally effective: drop it on the 15th of next month - the exact release day of the first BD volume of Natsume Yuujinchou - on her NatsuYume account. Marketing dressed up as behind-the-scenes. Promotion wrapped in "content the fans have been asking for."
And it wouldn't be just promotion.
Yumi meant to weave in the small stories from production - studio incidents, direction choices, those intimate details the audience devours with an almost hungry affection… and right in the middle of it, like seasoning you couldn't pretend wasn't there, the whole Maki vs. Sora Kamakawa affair would be included too. Not the main dish, but part of the script all the same - the kind of ugliness that, however unpleasant, kept people watching.
When she aimed the camera at him and brought it up, Sora realized he was already tired inside.
Kicking someone when they were down always felt ungraceful to him. Like proving something that didn't need proving, when the work should have been enough. He hated this kind of war - the online cutting, the endless quote-and-reply, the sense that every line had to be sharpened into a clean stab to "win."
Still, as Yumi adjusted the light, the tripod, the mic - black dress, posture steady and effortless, like she belonged anywhere she decided to stand - Sora couldn't stop the thought from surfacing.
She really holds a grudge, huh…
It wasn't just a grudge. It was temperament.
Yumi was a rare type: unpredictable, full of odd little whims, a tongue sharp enough to crack the air - but the moment someone she considered "hers" got hit, she became a wall. A blade.
She'd invested in the project. In her eyes, that naturally made Sora part of what was "hers." If Makito cursed at Sora, Sora could pretend it wasn't worth answering. But Yumi couldn't.
He waited until she finished fiddling with the framing and spoke softly, careful not to break the rhythm of her setup.
"Thank you."
Yumi turned, clear eyes bright with amusement, like the word had come from somewhere too unexpected to be taken at face value.
"Thank you for what?" she asked, her smile curling. "For releasing this video on your BD launch day and doing promo for you? Don't get it twisted. I have shares in Natsume Yuujinchou too. I'm just trying to make more money."
"That's not it." Sora held her gaze without rushing. "I mean… you're willing to go up against Makito's fans - and Natsuyuki Shirasawa's - over someone you've only known a few months. That's going to splash back on you too."
He hated "drama." But when someone stepped in front of him anyway - against common sense, against the safer option - he couldn't just ignore it.
Yumi let out a short sound that was half laugh, half sigh.
"It's nothing." Then, as naturally as if arrogance were simply another tool in her kit, she added, "Maki is the kind of guy who can't stand talent. He sees a newcomer doing something good and tries to crush them before they grow. I won't tolerate that. And besides… you're mine. What he did was basically spitting in my face. So I'm going to make him lose face. Make sure he learns he's not untouchable in this industry."
She stepped aside to check the camera screen, then - like she'd been waiting for the moment - pulled a thread from the past on purpose.
"Also… I remember it perfectly. Before I put money into Natsume Yuujinchou, you said you had a new project in your head. Something in the same vein as Voices of a Distant Star."
Sora froze for a beat, just long enough to feel the weight of how carefully she'd stored that offhand promise.
"If you really want to thank me," Yumi continued, looking at him over her shoulder, steady, "then make it real. I'm waiting."
Under the investor talk and the marketing math, Yumi was what she'd always been: a veteran anime fan. Money was a bonus. What truly drove her was the chance to push the kind of projects she wanted to exist - to see the Japanese industry produce something she'd been aching to watch.
In that way… she was a lot like Sumire.
Both of them loved animation with a near-pure intensity. The difference was that one threw herself into the work, while the other - after meeting Sora - chose to throw her money in, as if her wallet was the way she'd found to step into that world without asking permission.
Sora looked at Yumi and, a heartbeat late, understood what she was really asking for.
Months ago, when he'd said that, the story in his head had been something else. A title that looked different on the surface… but carried the same painful core: what time and distance do to a feeling when it's real enough to hurt.
Voices of a Distant Star had been an answer - love enduring, crossing years, culminating in a reunion after eight.
The other story - the one he hadn't put into words - was the opposite answer: thirteen years, a station, trains passing in opposite directions… and a single glance that said, without saying it, that what had once been sincere had already dissolved into the air.
Sora cleared his throat, like his body was warning him the ground ahead was unstable.
"If it's that one…" he started, then hesitated. "It's a tragedy. The kind that crushes you."
Yumi didn't even blink.
"I'm not afraid." Her voice was serious, almost challenging. "Could it really be sadder than Voices of a Distant Star? I want something with the same spirit. Natsume Yuujinchou is excellent, but… Voices is still, to me, the best thing you've ever made. And I'm a major shareholder, an investor. Consider that I put money in when Yume Animation was in trouble, and I backed you up when people were humiliating you online. The least you can do is take what I want seriously."
Sora went quiet for a beat too long.
He knew. Projects like that… he'd have to face them sooner or later. Just not now.
Right now, he was still planting his feet in the TV market. The reality was blunt: those stories belonged on a theater screen. And he'd barely secured a respectable foothold in the weekly ratings fight inside Tokushima TV's broadcast range.
"After Natsume Yuujinchou finishes," he said at last, smoothing the topic aside with the gentleness of someone who had to survive the present before setting fire to the future, "I'll think about it properly."
It bought him time. When the series ended, he'd have numbers, he'd have the audience's response, he'd have the accumulated emotional weight that had been shaping every decision he made. Only then would he choose the next step.
…
The fourth week of October arrived with another weekend, and the season's chessboard kept shifting.
Maou Reincarnation, The Dragon King Next Door, and Card had already found their groove. Their fourth episodes landed without big surprises - the ratings held steady, both nationwide and within the regional slice, hovering between 4.2% and 4.3%. It was the kind of stability the major networks loved: nothing explodes, but nothing collapses either. A machine running smoothly.
But the industry's real attention wasn't on them anymore.
On Sunday, Akane no Sora and Natsume Yuujinchou were once again the center of conversation. That night, after Akane no Sora aired, the forum lit up - the story had hit a peak, and the number of related threads and posts jumped by at least a third compared to the previous week.
Even so, when Natsume Yuujinchou aired its fourth episode… the atmosphere changed.
That episode's story was simple, but it carried a kind of sadness that didn't need to shout to hurt. It followed one of Natsume's classmates, Sasa Hayashi, and the youkai Shigure.
A school courage test - flashlights, nervous laughter, fear disguised as a game… and inside it, a youkai who liked a girl but wouldn't let himself even brush her hand. Not because he lacked courage, but because he was ashamed. Because he was terrified that the moment she learned what he was, her eyes would change. Terrified of being rejected for simply existing.
Shigure avoided meeting her the way someone flees their own sentence: if he got close, he might scare her and lose everything.
But Sasa Hayashi, on the other hand, carried a stubborn desire to see him again. Shigure had helped her once - in a way that had shifted something inside her - and now she wanted to meet him again, like it was a debt fate hadn't finished collecting.
The episode guided their connection with a tenderness that felt almost cruel, and when it reached the final scene - when Shigure disappeared - it was like the fandom's air had been ripped out.
That week, Natsume stole tears from people who swore they "didn't cry at cartoons." People cursed the scriptwriter for being "heartless" while their faces were wet and their hands shook over the keyboard, as if that contradiction was part of the rite.
So the next morning, even though Akane no Sora's 4.56% rating for episode four was already an impressive number, the animation press kept staring - stubborn, hungry - at Natsume Yuujinchou's 4.41%.
Because within the broadcast area…
It had happened.
The official overtake.
And it wasn't just The Dragon King Next Door. Natsume also passed Card and Maou Reincarnation in the same sweep, climbing steps without losing momentum.
Nationwide, Akane no Sora still looked like a monster without rivals - absurd popularity, clear dominance, the feeling no one could touch it.
But in Shikoku - in the four-prefecture slice - there was another story unfolding.
In four weeks, Natsume Yuujinchou had leapt again and again: 3.3% at launch, then 3.8%, then 4.2%… and now 4.4%. Jump after jump, no stumble.
And when a series climbs like that, anyone with eyes understands the message: Akane no Sora's hold on first place there was in danger. It wasn't "maybe." It was "when."
Next week…
What would happen?
And at the same time, Sora, Tokushima TV, and even the industry outlets all found themselves staring at a fact that changed the weight of everything:
The first BD volume of Natsume Yuujinchou would release on November 15th.
Two weeks.
And the timing was perfect - too perfect. The BDs for Akane no Sora, The Dragon King Next Door, Card, and Maou Reincarnation were also set to release that same week. The four major national networks, with their season flagship titles, would be competing for the same space in the audience's wallet.
On television, Natsume could only battle them inside the regional reach of its signal, across Shikoku's four prefectures.
But in BD sales…
It was the whole country. It was war on an open field.
If Natsume Yuujinchou managed, over the next two episodes, to surpass Akane no Sora in regional ratings, the headlines would write themselves. The press would roar. And with enough noise, even fans outside Shikoku would hear.
Anime fans across Japan would inevitably learn that within Tokushima TV's broadcast range, there was a series that not only had the strongest reception of the season, but was also cutting down the flagship titles of all four major national networks - one after another - inside that territory.
Curiosity outside the region would spike to its peak.
And then, with the BD dropping right at that moment…
What would happen?
Six months ago, Voices of a Distant Star had topped the winter season in ratings and word-of-mouth - but in BD sales, it finished fifth. It hadn't broken the decade-long myth: the four major networks always locking down the top four BD spots each season with their flagship titles.
But this was autumn.
And Natsume Yuujinchou…
Could it… create a miracle?
It didn't need to be something absurd, like taking first place in average volume sales - that was too big to imagine without laughing in disbelief.
But pulling one… or even more than one… of the four major networks' flagship titles off their pedestal?
…That no longer felt impossible.
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