Chapter 14: 14. Hooked
Ryūhei handed the first chapter of One Piece he was holding to the man.
The man was reading while muttering "Devil Fruit" when he saw the image of a small boy who could stretch his body. Yes, the One Piece story begins with the execution of the pirate king, Gold Roger, which continues to a small village, where a boy named Monkey D. Luffy eats a mysterious fruit, causing his body to stretch.
After the man finished reading, he turned to Ryūhei.
"Boy, where is the next one?"
Ryūhei stretched out his hand while smiling.
"A thousand Mora for the first volume. The price will go up later since this is the first day I open my shop."
The man twitched. He felt that the kid in front of him had the talent to bait people to buy his manga. He admitted that the story about pirates he read was so interesting after the introduction through the death of Gold Roger that mentioned the ultimate treasure. With the addition of Devil Fruits as an element, the story becomes addictive for him who used to be a pirate in the past.
The man reached into his pocket, then handed a thousand Mora to Ryūhei. Ryūhei, who received it, immediately took the first volume of One Piece that was on the bookshelf.
The man immediately left with the One Piece manga while Ryūhei thanked him for the purchase.
Shortly after the man left, Xingqiu came in with a young man. The young man has light blue hair reaching his ears, pale skin, and ice-blue cat slit eyes. He wears a symmetrical white hooded jacket, white pants with gold cuffs, along with a dark navy undershirt.
"Finally, you start to open your shop."
Ryūhei waved his hand.
"Xing—" But, before Ryūhei could finish his words, Xingqiu interjected.
"Call me big bro!"
Ryūhei twitched. He wondered why Xingqiu was so insistent on becoming older. Even if one thinks about it, being young again is the dream of adults on Earth.
"Fine, fine, you're a big bro. Then, who is this person?" Ryūhei pointed at the young man beside Xingqiu.
The young man with light blue hair stepped forward. He clasped his hands before introducing himself.
"Good morning. My name is Chongyun. I'm Xingqiu's friend. Nice to meet you!"
Ryūhei greeted him back while clasping his hands.
"Nice to meet you too! My name is Niwa Ryūhei. You can call me Ryūhei. I came from Inazuma a week ago."
"By the way, lil bro. You're not wearing the blindfold anymore?" Xingqiu suddenly asked after seeing Ryūhei's appearance. Ryūhei replied.
"Come on, bro. If I wore a blindfold, everyone would think I'm weird or crazy. And it will also affect potential customers. I'm not very well known in Liyue yet, so my appearance shouldn't look weird, messy, or shabby."
Chongyun nodded as he agreed with Ryūhei.
"I wonder what kind of a book called manga is. I've only heard from Xingqiu that manga is a story told through pictures along with narrations and dialogues which makes the story easier to understand."
Ryūhei put a smile on his face. He ushered them into the shop. Then he showed Chongyun the first chapters of the two manga he brought.
"You can try these."
When he saw the dragon on the cover of Dragon Ball, Chongyun immediately grabbed it and read it.
On the other hand, Xingqiu was bewildered when he saw the posters and after seeing the inside.
The quality of the print on the posters was so good that Xingqiu couldn't help but amaze. He was so surprised at which printer can print such good posters.
More importantly, he saw the manga neatly arranged on a bookshelf, and each of them was wrapped in plastic as a seal.
If one looks closely, Ryūhei's manga shop might look empty. But Xingqiu knew, that was because Ryūhei had just printed the first volume of each manga. In the near future, Xingqiu was pretty sure that all bookshelves would be filled with manga Ryūhei drew.
But then, something came up in his mind.
"Ryūhei, aren't you afraid that in the future you will have many competitors? For example, it is possible that a well-known novel will be turned into a manga, you know."
"Hmm. Isn't that good? In the first place, I want to introduce manga to the world. It doesn't matter if everyone is trying to make their own manga. Even if one tries to adapt the story from a novel, it depends on who will be drawing anyway. In any case, just like novels, manga stories can be varied as well. So, you don't need to be worried if there will be a lot of competitors."
Ryūhei confidently said that to Xingqiu. But, he was surprised by Xingqiu's quick thinking of a novel that could be adapted to manga. Since manga makes it easier for people to explore and understand stories thanks to the pictures drawn by the author. So, no doubt many popular novels will be adapted into manga in the future.
Xingqiu nodded. Then he put his hand on his chin.
"I see. But well, I'm quite curious, how did you make the copies so quickly?"
"Hmmm, how should I say… Since you're my sworn brother, I'll tell you eventually, but I can't do it for now since someone might overhear our conversation."
"If it's your secret, I won't pry any further."
"Haha. Thanks a lot. By the way, do you want to read? I'll give you each for free, you know."
"Don't you lose if you easily give those to me? First of all, with your current finances, would you be able to get a refund if you gave them to me? What's more, you're also offering a 75% discount."
Ryūhei responded with a smile. And with that response, Xingqiu understood. "I see. It's related to your secret, huh?"
Ryūhei of course had already prepared an excuse for Xingqiu. But since Xingqiu didn't really want to know Ryūhei's secret, he didn't plan to tell him either. At least, until Xingqiu really wanted to know.
Even though Ryūhei had only known Xingqiu for a few days, he knew that Xingqiu was chivalrous and had a strong sense of justice. Moreover, he is a pretty intelligent youngster. Knowing this trait, Ryūhei doubted that Xingqiu would do anything related to betrayal. And Ryūhei trusted his own judgment.
Thus, even though Ryūhei shared his secrets with Xingqiu, even if everything he said was true, he was sure that Xingqiu would not share Ryūhei's secrets with anyone else.
But at the very least, Ryūhei planned not to tell the truth just in case.
"You gave me this building, it's natural if I give you something in exchange, right?"
"If you said so, I'll gladly accept."
In doing so, Xingqiu received two manga from Ryūhei. At the same time, Chongyun also finished reading the first chapter of Dragon Ball.
"Ryūhei, what happened next?"
Hearing Chongyun's question, Ryūhei turned to him.
"Why don't you just borrow Xingqiu's? I just gave him 1 volume each per manga." He pointed at Xingqiu with his thumb.
"Eh, you gave manga to Xingqiu for free?" Then, Chongyun turned his gaze at Xingqiu. "Xingqiu, let me borrow the Dragon Ball manga."
Xingqiu smirked. He stretched out his hand while saying.
"Pay up!"
"Hey, are you kidding me? Didn't you get them for free? Why do I need to pay?"
"Because I was given manga, and you weren't."
"Ahhh, you're so annoying."
Looking at the two, Ryūhei just chuckled. Although Xingqiu looked mild-mannered from the outside, it seemed he also had a mischievous side when together with Chongyun.
After a while they argued, Xingqiu threw a Dragon Ball manga at Chongyun. He himself headed to the seat and opened the manga seal to read the One Piece manga he was holding. And sure enough, they are captivated by the stories of each manga they read.
Ryūhei smirked when he looked at their changing expressions while reading the manga. He felt that it would take a long time to wait for them to finish reading the manga, so he decided to walk out of the shop, just in case he might get a regular customer.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone