Oh, that’d explain why she didn’t think twice before buying it.
“So... there really are people who’ll pay actual money to buy the things I’ve drawn. I was really happy when my drawings were liked or bookmarked and all that, but this makes it feel so much more real... I’m so happy I could cry.”
Thinking about it, since this was her first time bringing her doujinshi to an in-person event, it was also the first time Kisaki had met any of her readers.
And the first person to come over bought it right away. Way to go, Kisaki!
“Th-That’s cool!” I said—praising her any further would have been too awkward.
“Y-Yeah...” she replied.
I couldn’t see her face, but I imagined she was blushing.
“Oh, by the way!” my sister then said, looking at Kokoro, mostly, but also glancing at me for a brief moment. “If you want to go and look around, feel free! The earlier you get there, the more likely you are to find the things you want to buy!”
I had a few doujinshi on my shopping list, and I’d also checked Pixiv to find out where the circles’ booths were. But that was far from my top priority. I’d mostly come to help Kisaki sell her books, to help Kokoro meet up with the cosplayer she had a crush on, and to see Elena for the first time in weeks. If the doujinshi I wanted were all sold out by the time I went looking for them, then so be it. I could always buy them online after Comiket was over.
“I was gonna go to the cosplay area around lunchtime,” Kokoro replied, “but I can go buy my doujinshi whenever. Like, if you tell me the ones you want, I can get them for you while I’m at it. Is there anything you’re worried could be sold out soon?”
“Hmm... There is one.”
“I’ll go buy it right now then!”
“Thank you so much!” Kisaki replied, before giving Kokoro all the details she needed to identify the doujinshi she wanted.
After serving another customer, Kokoro left to go shopping by herself, leaving me alone with my sister.
“Um... do you want to go shopping too?” Kisaki asked me.
“Yeah, but I can go do that later.”
“Oh. You can go now if you want too, you know?”
“I can’t leave you here all by yourself.”
After a moment of surprise, Kisaki, suddenly annoyed, turned away from me.
“I’ll be fine running the booth on my own! That was the plan to begin with,” she said.
“I know, but you’re still just a middle school girl...”
“Stop treating me like a child!”
She’d raised her voice, but I could tell that she wasn’t really angry—this had always been her way of showing she was embarrassed.
More and more attendees bought Kisaki’s doujinshi—both the store-bound and the hand-bound ones. She wasn’t gathering a crowd or anything like that, but the stream of customers was pretty constant. Kisaki handed the copies to the customers, and I kept the table stocked with fresh ones from the cardboard box.
I’ve got to give it to her. She may still be a schoolgirl, but she’s got talent. Uploading her stuff on the web has gotten her so many customers already! I wish I could read it.
It didn’t take long for Kokoro to come back.
“Every single one of the doujinshi you wanted were still in stock!” she proudly announced to Kisaki.
“Really?! That’s great news! Thank you so much!”
“And I found all the ones I was looking for too! It’s all thanks to you and the circle tickets!” She seemed to be overjoyed about getting all the books that were on her shopping list.
“You can go next then,” Kisaki told me.
“Ah... right. Be right back then,” I said, getting up from my chair.
I headed over toward the booths that interested me, and I somehow managed to buy everything I was looking for. Walking through the hot event hall was tiring, but it was nothing in comparison to standing in line in the scorching heat.
Kokoro was right—we had Kisaki and the circle tickets to thank for making doujinshi-shopping at Comiket a bearable feat. Some authors even sold their extra tickets to strangers, and, while I couldn’t really get behind that, I definitely understood why someone would be ready to pay good money to get their hands on one.
“I’m back!”
“How did it go?” Kokoro asked me.
“Even better than I expected. I found all the doujinshi I was looking for.”
“Oh, that’s a relief,” Kisaki said.
“Yeah... Circle tickets really are amazing. Thanks, Kisaki.”
“S-Sure...”
All of a sudden, a couple of familiar faces showed up in front of our table.
“There she is!”
“Hello, everyone!”
They were Iroha and Mikoto, my former maid café colleagues. Kokoro had probably texted them the location of our booth.
“You’re cosplaying Arimu? You look amazing!” Iroha commented.
“It’s certainly not easy to pull something like that off. You have a gift,” Mikoto agreed. Unlike Kokoro, neither of our friends were cosplaying this time.
“Awww, you’re too kind, both of you! Oh, right, Kisaki, this is Iroha and this is Mikoto. Ichigaya and I met them while working at a maid café together.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Ichigaya Kisaki,” my sister introduced herself.
“I-Ichigaya?! You’re Ichi’s sister?! But you look nothing like him! You’re so cute!”
“I-Iroha!” I protested, shocked by the ease with which she was able to insult me.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too,” Mikoto said. “Your brother used to help us at the café. Well, usually it was the rest of us helping him out...”
“M-Mikoto!” I protested again, although she definitely had a point.
Kisaki looked shocked for a moment before hurriedly bowing her head and saying, “My pleasure!”
Hm? What’s she so surprised about?
“Oh my, you’re so polite. You really are nothing like your brother,” Mikoto told her.
“Hey! I’m polite too!”
Iroha, meanwhile, was staring in awe at Kisaki’s doujinshi.
“Whoa, I was already surprised that you were selling your art so young, but you’re great at this!” she said.
“Oh, but we’re getting in the way. We should get going now,” Mikoto said as another customer approached us and picked up a copy from the table. “We’ll text you later on. It was lovely meeting you, Kisaki.”
“Thanks! That sounds awesome!” Kokoro replied, and the two left.
They swept in from nowhere, dealt a ton of damage, and left just as quickly. Those two are like a summer storm.
“Unbelievable...” Kisaki muttered to herself.
“Hm?”
“I can’t believe you’re friends not just with Kokoro, but with other pretty girls too,” she said, looking at me with a slight frown. She seemed genuinely confused.
“What do you want me to say?” I shrugged.
I must look way too popular and extroverted to her... I thought, but then I remembered that I’d never been friends with a girl before meeting Kokoro, and that Kisaki had every reason to be surprised.
“Oh!” Kokoro exclaimed, looking at her phone. “Minami said she’s coming!”
I felt my whole body tense from head to toe.
“Is that another friend of yours?” Kisaki asked.
“Yep!” Kokoro replied. “She goes to our school. She’s a voice actress, and she’s one hundred percent the prettiest girl ever!”
“Whoa, you’re friends with a voice actress?! That’s amazing!”
Minami’s coming here?! Oh damn, I’m so nervous... Is my hair okay? I need to take a look in a mirror, but I don’t want these two seeing that...
“Hello.”
I barely had the time to worry before Elena’s arrival.
“Minami! Thanks for coming!” Kokoro welcomed her.
Our blonde friend was wearing a mask and hat to hide her identity, but there was no disguising how beautiful she was. Elena looked amazing in her gingham dress. It was still hard to believe that a girl that looked like this would like me, as a friend or otherwise.
“Oh, hello... I’m Minami. It’s nice to meet you. You’re Ichigaya’s sister, right?”
“Yes! I’m Kisaki! Nice to meet you too!”
After they’d exchanged greetings, Kokoro began showing Elena the doujinshi, leaving me an outsider to their three-way conversation.
I missed the timing to join in... I should’ve said hello! But I was way too nervous...
“It’s nice to see you here, Ichigaya.” Elena addressed me all of a sudden, right when I was worrying that I wouldn’t be able to speak with her at all.
She’s smiling at me like she always does...
“O-Oh! M-Minami! Have you been enjoying the event? Did you... m-manage to buy some doujinshi?” I asked, stumbling over my words so much that I must have looked like an idiot.
“Yes, thankfully the ones I wanted were still available. Though I wouldn’t want to be a nuisance loitering around your booth, so I’ll take my leave.”
I wanted to chat with her a bit more though...
“Th-Thank you for stopping by!”
She casually waved at us all and then walked away. I was surprised by how calm she was acting, as if our last meeting had never happened. On the other hand though, I felt like she was trying to avoid me.
I did my best to tidy up just for her and then she left after a few seconds...
“Wow... That girl was beautiful! She can’t be Japanese, can she?” Kisaki asked.
“She’s half-Japanese, half-English,” I explained.
“You were trying pretty hard to talk with her, but she wasn’t having any of it, huh? It looked like she was trying to avoid you,” my sister said, giving me a look of pure pity.
“Wh-What?! You’re just imagining things!”
“Did you do something to upset Minami?” Kokoro then asked me. There was no pity in my roommate’s gaze—just suspicion.
“N-No, I didn’t do anything!”
Maybe she sounded a bit cold toward me, but that must be because she felt awkward after what she said last time... I think. Either way, it’s a shame that I got to spend so little time with her.
Kisaki’s booth continued attracting a lot of visitors, including some of the online friends that she’d promised to meet.
“Ah!” Kokoro suddenly exclaimed, checking her phone. “Do you mind if I leave for a while?”
“Of course! No problem!”
It was pretty clear from the way that she started fixing her wig and looking into the mirror on her phone case that she’d heard about the whereabouts of a certain someone.
“Are you going to see that cosplayer guy?” I asked her.
“Y-Yeah. He just tweeted that he’s done shopping and that he’ll be in the cosplay area, so...”
“Oh?!” Kisaki chipped in. “Are you talking about that handsome Toppo cosplayer?!”
“Y-Yes. That one...” Kokoro replied, blushing. “But wouldn’t it be annoying if I just showed up? He’s cosplaying with some friends, and what if he doesn’t remember me? He might be all like, ‘Who the heck are you?’ and that’d be a bummer...”