6 hours earlier-

Aya didn't waste the slightest bit of time, even if her young charge opus magnum Artwork was in her arms, She didn't care to read it. She move through the wave of people and ignored the lobby secretary as she rushed into the main office and took the lift as soon as possible.

After arriving at the JAMP magazine company branch in Sapporo Tanuki Street, Aya Gozen directly ran towards  Printer room, boot up a computer, and scanned the drawings with the highest degree of accuracy using the highest quality machine, she wanted the work to be the best when it's scanned. While panting around the room to prepare for everything, she proceeds to scan the drawings one by one, and on the last page she saw the final panel for the manga he wanted to submit, the final drawing of the manuscript blew her mind away,

It was breathtaking, it shook the core of her world when she saw the art. A white-haired man and a black-haired man each showed half of their faces! The original paper consists of a single drawing within two panels, and they are on the left and right.

The white-haired man was wearing a terrifying mask. The pupil of his left eye was reddened, and beside the eye socket, bulging red blood ghouled eye could be seen! There was determination in his eyes.

The black-haired man looked like an ordinary student, and in his eyes, he could clearly see the kindness in his heart with the seriousness of the real world. A masterful artwork! Two completely different styles, on the side of the white-haired man, the lines used for drawing are extremely public! There are even traces of explosive brush strokes and ink in it!

However, Alex did not correct it. he kept it rough, On the contrary, he used the brush strokes to express the domineering character of the white-haired man to the fullest.

The black-haired man's drawing is what draws Aya's heart in! The reconciliation and the delicacy of normal human asthetics and the contrast with the ghoulish violence is obvious with the delicate outline of a shoujo style manga on the left, and the debauchery of a shonen Action manga on the right, but the two are in perfect harmonies like yin and yang.

Among the two contrast of black and white, a faint burst and a breakthrough of personality can be clearly felt, After the high-quality digital scanner scans all the paintings, the machine emits a reminder sound *beep*

Now she needs to send them properly.

Suppressing her desire to continue admiring his works, she quickly uploaded the scanned drawing to the JAMP Magazine portal using her administration privileges, she log in and quickly do the uploads while multitasking around the room by contacting the reviewers, everything was set and done within ten minutes! Until the draft was approved and "Kyoto Ghoul" appeared at on the Main page of JAMP Portal, nothing is final!

There are only a little more than two days left until the voting deadline,  the reason why she is in such a hurry is that she wants this draft to be uploaded to the Internet as quickly as possible, and does not want to waste a minute and a second. Every vote counts! the faster it gets there the faster people could see this masterpiece!

It's uploaded!!

Browsing on the computer, Aya quickly read the manga that was uploaded," Kyoto ghoul" and read it page by page.

Every page you look at! she felt shocked and awe again and again! Not just perfect drawing skills! even the content of the story is amazing! 10/10! she never gave a perfect review but to her, this artwork is full marks! the first chapter has that hook needed to reel in the readers and enough diversifying techniques from soft to violent brushstrokes to kept the battle scenes and switch up mellowed yet entertained.

When Gen Ganeki first met Touga  ... Ganeki's desperation to find that he can't eat human food... His confusion between humans and ghouls...the relationship repressed between human interaction it's morality and the ghouls own unwritten rules.

In just forty-eight pages of this absolute masterpiece! In the process of narrating the story, Alex Kenichi has masterfully used the perfect mirror to this real-life-like world to fully show the setting, so that readers will not feel confused even if they don't read the introduction. There was depth in the world-building.

The most important thing is that the sometimes arrogant and sometimes delicate style changes make the readers' hearts jump! The whole manga is full of high energy! Constantly pumping your adrenaline and tapered it down during the right notes! This is a whole new style! An absolutely novel technique in the setting! An unparalleled wonderful story! This manga can shake the entire ACG world!

But! Soon, she discovered a very important problem to this very problem. Time.

There are only two days left. On the first two days of the awards, basically, all the artists who participated in the awards have submitted their works! After the past five days, most of the avid readers have basically voted for the top three in their hearts. And the popular vote of the previous submissions, accumulated in the past few days, even the worst series they have here have a certain number of votes.

So what if Alex's manga is better? Does it even matter if the art is one of the best in the whole competition? A manga that no one reads can't be called a manga! It will get buried within all of the thousands of entries getting submitted each day!

Even his father's pen name couldn't boost his current popularity value! Right now his series is completely at the bottom! until someone sees it, until someone votes for it, Until someone discovers its value, He won't be able to win the grand prize in this event!

Sitting in front of the computer! Aya could only clench her fists tightly! She won't let this die down like this! what could she do? Even if Alex managed to catch up he won't be able to get that first top-three spot. she needs an angle, and he needs the publicity, wait...publicity?

publicity! Now all he needs is just publicity!

Unlocking her smartphone, Aya look through the contacts on the phone, and couldn't help but dial it, after finally thinking that this masterpiece might be buried, she took a deep breath, and with a sigh in her heart, she prepares to face her demons right now!

..................

"Hey! what happened? you haven't called me in three years?"

On the other end of the phone, a voice came out, and when she heard his voice, Aya Gozen couldn't help but be swayed and wanted to cancel the call, thinking about the previous scene she decided not to do that and face him directly. If Soujirou Gozen his uncle was the Owner of the biggest publisher here in Sapporo, then her father Souken Gozen is the Number one newspaper here in the Hokkaido region. The Owner of the Gozen Shinbun has a large readership base from all walks of demographic and even from other regions such as Osaka and Tokyo subscribers.

What better way if it's not relying on the family? after watching how close-knit the Kenichi's are, she wanted to believe in what they represent. She wanted to believe that her family can be that way too, Uncle Soujirou always treated her nicely, She just needed a shot, and she hasn't asked anything from her father at all even when she was younger. Hopefully, her father would listen to her request.

" Hey Old man! I have a big scoop here! Do you want it or not?! If not! Then I'll go to another newspaper!" Aya said coldly, with the same tone as the person on the phone. It's been three years and it's still very awkward for her to reach out to her strange father.

"Hoh? a good scoop? now you're talking girlie! What's your condition gal?"

"The condition is simple, I need this story to fly by today!, on the website and the paper it doesn't matter I want it up now! at least within the hour!,  And it has to be on the headline!"

"Hehe! that's how the newspaper industry works these days, You need to create public opinion and attention before you think of me as your old man! If you go to other newspapers, even if they like your news if your news is not really amazing? They will not give you a headline even if you send one immediately!"

The old man on the phone was right if She finds another newspaper, and if the news was not explosive enough, such as a story about the prime minister of the country cheating on his wife, the newspaper would not let her make the headlines, and it would still be  rejected immediately.

"Tsk!"

After his own thoughts were exposed, Aya could only smack her head in despair and said in a broken voice,

"Old man! Can you help me or not? if you don't want to help me, Fine! I'll call you again in another three years!"

"Oh, who said anything about not helping you out? hear me out, I've got two conditions"

said the old man on the other line with a little panicky voice,

"Say it!!"

"First! You have to tell me the reason for the whole thing afterward!"

"no problem!"

"Second!" The old man on the phone deliberately pause for a moment

"You... have to call me Dad! haha!"

"Old man! Are you asking me to admit defeat?" Aya grinds her teeth when she said it,

"Hey baby girl, I'm not forcing you to do anything, not even call me "Otousan" like one of those typical Japanese fathers, just "dad" If you can't even do this, Go find another newspaper!"

Aya could only bite her nails and looked at "Kyoto Ghoul" on her computer, her eyes were very anxious! The voice on the phone was very tough, but stubborn just like a child. Both of them are hard-headed. One of them is waiting for a reply, the other is constantly brewing and brooding by herself, the phone went silent for a full 2 ​​minutes! The two were on the phone, and neither of them have spoken for the past 2 minutes.

"Okay! Fine! I promise you! But this isn't over oldman!"

" ah, screw it baby girl no deal..you didn't call me Dad at least your sister-"

" FINE DAD!"

" That's my gal! one more time!"

" FUCK YOU DAD"

"Hahaha! there's my cute little gal! I'll start printing! send me the details over to my email, then I'll do-"

Aya smashed her phone on the wall still fuming.

" Damn Kuso Oyaji! that's the last time I'm calling him! If he doesn't print that paper I'll kill him myself!"

Aya packed her stuff and took back the manuscript and put it into her bag, she sent the details to her father's personal email and send some of the scanned pictures in case they needed them and left. She passed by some of her colleagues, she hasn't even been bothered to get to know them since she's just a freelance agent under Jamp. There's no need to get close to these people since they are all competing against each other for the rankings in the future.

If Alex's work does get a serialization here in the future, that is what she should expect, and getting a serialization is always the end goal for most Mangaka. Before she could go any further she met someone she didn't want to meet at all, someone much worse than her father. It's her older sister.

She wanted to avoid the path but since they are waiting on the same lift it was inevitable.

"Oh Aya, long time no see, you hanged up on me from back then"

Maya Gozen, Eldest Daughter of Soken Gozen, Apparent heir of the Gozen Shinbun Empire, currently working as the CEO of JAMP Magazine International at her father's request before taking up the mantle as her father's direct heir. The reason why she was here in the Sapporo HQ branch is to finalize the last-minute changes to an upcoming collaboration event here with one of the Shueisha's top Idol projects they were working on top-secret, Of course, such secrets are not privy to Aya since it's none of her business. 

These two had a rivalry from the beginning even as they were kids since the people around them aren't able to keep up with their talents, They ended up becoming each other's rivals while growing up, and right now, she just noticed that she made a simple blunder. She's currently here in JAMP. She thinks she's here applying for a job like her sister suggested in their earlier conversation.

The glowing pink condescending look she's always giving her while growing up is there, it's annoying and she hates that stupid face of hers even though they look kinda similar to each other albeit with shorter hair, right now she's grinning like a fool as if she's won something from her.

"What do you want Maya, I'm busy. I have no time to talk to you"

Maya could only sneer and said-

"Same old Aya, always the Ice Queen, even with her own sister, I see you're here in JAMP. did you take my advice?"

Aya could only stare at her with hostility.

"I'm here as a freelancer with "Tochigi" under my -"

"Shut your mouth, never say that name in front of my face! whoever this kid is, he's just a damn copycat"

 It's always like this with her whenever she mentions that name. Aya knew they both had a past together but she needs to grow up, he didn't betray her like she always insist. Aya could only ignore her stupid thoughts and focus on the lift. It's getting here rather slowly. Her past with Hiro Kenichi, Alex's father, that's a tale for another time.

"Alex isn't a copycat, he's much better than that"

Maya could only scoff at what she just said

"So the kid has a name huh? Alex is it? damn gaijin name, he really did marry that stupid blonde gaijin"

"that's not how you should treat aunt Katherine-"

"Shut it, I don't want to hear her name!"

"Sister...you really need to learn to let go and-"

"And ditch the kid, come and work here permanently, I'll set you up with an office because you're my sister" 

This is the part that infuriates her the most. Her sister doesn't listen to anyone but herself, always inserting herself into other people's problems and ignoring them, always cutting into other people's words before they could even finish a sentence, always -always tries to interfere in your life, she doesn't care if it's what you wanted to do, only what she wanted to do, and she jokes about everything. Never taking anything seriously at face value, never showing any real emotions, it's all just a game to her. It's why she has adopted this Icy temperance in the first place, a mechanism since childhood she adopted to deal with her deranged sister.

"No thank you, I'm doing fine with Alex on myself"

Maya didn't take too kindly to her sister refusing her like that and drove that point in.

"Hey, you seem to be forgetting that I'm your boss, What if I just interfere with that precious Alex of yours? Why won't you ever listen to what I ever tell you?"

"I'm a Freelance Editor with my own License, do whatever you want, you cannot touch us, we haven't broken any laws"

Grinning again maliciously like that she just tap her shoulders freely as she gazed menacingly at her sister

"Smart little Aya, always doing whatever she wants, Eh..it's your life. Whatever, the minute you slip up, maybe I'll poach that boy and put the wool over your eyes, If he's as good as you say, he might really be JAMP material after all. Wouldn't it be better for him to be here with us with far more competent people?"

Aya's cold visage and unchanging expression kept everything under, her emotions are bubbling right now as she wanted to slap her sister but she wouldn't do it. This is why she didn't want to come work here, thankfully she's just a freelancer agent. All her agent is under her name only, JAMP couldn't do anything even if they tried since she's done it through everything legally, leaving her with some freedom to work around and skirt JAMP's nepotism and corruption. This is the main reason why she doesn't want to work there in the first place and would rather work at her Uncles Publishing company and...she doesn't want to deal with this woman and her nonsense.

Ding*

"The lift is here are you getting in? What? too good to be in a lift with your older sister? sooo not cute-"

she taunted, that was the last straw. Something snapped in Aya's mind as she stormed away with her files madly, with a flick of the middle finger she showed it to her older sister and ran off.

"I'm taking the stairs! FUCK YOU, SIS!"

"Hahahahah! Childish Aya! poor Aya! you're too straight Aya! I was just messing around! hey!! Sis-! you don't have to leave! the lift is here! Come on-! live a little! Can't you take a joke!"

Maya Gozen could only stare from behind gleefully as she gloats over her victory again and enter the lift. What she didn't see was Aya's eyes were fired up, she took out her phone and type a bunch of stuff on the phone on her social media. Something she hasn't relied on in many months since she last publish her Novel a few years ago when she started becoming an Editor, right now may be out of spite, She wanted to use everything to ensure that Alex would meet with success, any means necessary, and also because..her family really pisses her off. she needed to vent it all out, on social media of course.

"damn it! my dad and my sister! why are the two of them so similar! I hate this! Auntie Katherine hasn't met my family, She doesn't know how horrible they are! there is no "Trust" at all! This family is hopeless! That advice is bullshit!"