Hello guys, sorry for the wait~! Well this is it, the final chapter~! Will Ritsu continue on with his decision to win and make Takano leave him alone, or will he decide to give in~! Well you guys are here to find out so please enjoy~! It would be so kind if you guys would review, I want to see what you guys thought of the final chapter~!
P.S- sorry if the number of the chapters are wrong, I think I lost one of my chapters on my laptop so I don't remember which number I left off on. On here it says that last chapter was 9 and this one is ten, but I am just going to call it eleven O.O Sorry if there was any confusion there.
Chapter 11- The Result
Ritsu was looking over his papers with the others around the meeting table.
"For the first printers, I think it would be best to print 200,000 copies to begin with." he began.
Yokozawa glared and crossed his arms. "Impossible, there is no way that a new manga is going to sell that many copies right away, I say 100,000." he said.
Takano looked over the papers. "The manga was very good, the editing is perfect, I don't see anything wrong with it, I agree with Onodera, the more we sale, the better profit. The advertising idea was flawless." he said, still looking at the papers.
Ritsu felt his face grow a little hot at Takano's small praising. He nodded at Takano as thanks and continues on.
"Like I said, 200,000 copies should sale fast, the mangaka to this book has created many other legends. Everyone loves her books." Ritsu said glancing around the table.
"He has a point." the woman across the table. She was the repersenative for the fifth floor.
Isaka looked over Ritsu's proposals and his advertising plan. "Everything looks fine, so I say I would have to agree with Takano and Onodera." he said.
Yokozawa shook his head. "It is a big mistake, if the same thing that happened with the other recent manga, happened now, it would cause another gap in the sales, we can't afford to loose any sales at this point." he said.
Takano looked at Yokozawa. "Then are we also going to have another problem like the one before that project, the one where we didn't print enough! We need as many copies out as we can, this book will sale!" he said, his voice raising.
Ritsu gulped inwardly and nodded. "This manga will definantly sale, it is interesting and I am sure that it will attract a lot of attention in stores." he said. "Shoujo manga is getting popluar lately with most of the young ladies." he finished.
Isaka sighed and rubbed his temples and looked at everyone around the table.
"Let's go with 170,500." he said.
Takano sat back and grumbled. "That is crazy, we should go with the orignal amount that Onodera has thought of, I am sure this manga will sale." he said.
Isaka shrugged. "Let us try 170,500 first, if we see a rapid increase in sales, we will imediatly print more before we run out." he said. "Is that agreeable with everyone?" he asked.
Takano glanced at the clock. He glanced at Onodera and flashed a grin before turning back to the others. "NO. We are not leaving this room until we get a higher amount of prints." he said.
Isaka sighed, he knew this was going to happen for some reason. He sat up to the table and looked through the papers. "Alright Ritsu let's go over your plan one more time and come up with a final decision." he said.
Ritsu noticed something funny behind Takano's grin, he watched as he saw him look at the clock again. He felt his heart flutter as he saw the time. He only had ten minutes left! Takano was stalling time! He swallowed hard and nodded. "Let's make it quick." he said, not glancing at Takano.
Takano chuckled inwardly, knowing that Ritsu now knew his motive. He picked up the documents in front of him and thought of all possible questions to keep them in this room.
Ritsu cleared his throat and began going over his proposal once again.
"The proposal I am offering is to make the new manga series, Ultra Maniac, by Wataru Yoshizumi, to hit the stores with the printing number of 200,000. Wataru Yoshizumi has made many great manga's so it's only natural that her newest manga's would be checked out right away, expecially those who are Yoshizumi-san's fans." he said and took a breath then continued.
"Yoshizumi-san worked really hard on this series and it deserves to be sold at a respectable amount." he finished up.
Takano smiled and looked up. "What are your plans for advertising?" he asked.
Ritsu glared at Takano. "As I said at the beginning of the meeting, the first time we went over it, I was hoping there could be billboards announcing the new release. A lot of the sales have advertising boards now days, so I thought we might attempt that approach." he said.
"But what if the billboards are to little, what if they don't like that approach, what do you suppose we do then to advertise?" Takano asked, pushing his glasses up slightly.
Ritsu was getting on edge each time the minutes decreased. "Then we will go with the second plan and move on to bigger things, like maybe an ad in a couple of manga magazines to announce the new release, or possibly a small mini-animated comercial. After all the authour wishes to turn it into a anime series shortly afterwards and has already discussed it with a director. She has signed it off and is ready to start recording after the release of the first volume." he said.
Takano smiled. "But what if the manga does not sale enough to make this commercial or anime?" he asked.
Ritsu put his hands on the table. "Then we will have to try a diffrent approach, we would try advertising by dressing up as some of the characters and saleing them outside of stores." he said.
Takano crossed his arms. "But what if nobody bites?" he asked.
Ritsu was getting frustrated, there was now only five mintues to go. "Then we would have to try my fourth plan, interview Yoshizumi-san about the new release and give details and possible future plans." he said.
Takano smiled and nodded. "But what if the author decides to quit in the middle of the series?" he asked.
Ritsu stood up. "Then I will do everything in my power to influence Yoshizumi-san to continue." he said.
Takano nodded. "Alright, let's decide on the printing numbers." he said.
Ritsu sighed and sat back down and looked around the table. "My answer still is 200,000." he said.
Isaka glanced over the papers and was writing some notes down on the side of one of the papers. "Yokozawa, what do you think after hearing the proposal the second time?" he asked.
Yokozawa thought for a moment and crossed his arms and sighed. "200,000" he mumbled and closed his eyes.
Isaka smiled. "Mikao-san?" he asked the woman at the end.
She to crossed her arms. "If we don't make the sale mark, I am personally coming to see you Onodera...200,000." she said.
Takano smiled. "200,000" he said and sat back in his chair.
Isaka sighed. "After much discussion, the printing number is 200,000." he said and stood up and wrote it on the slip and signed his name as approval. He then handed it to Ritsu. "Now all there is left to do is hand it in to the printer." he said and smiled. "Good job." he said and smiled.
Ritsu sighed and smiled. "Thank you everyone." he said and bowed.
Takano smiled and cleared his throat as everyone walked out, leaving only him and Ritsu. He grinned and pointed to the clock.
Ritsu blinked and looked up at the clock and his stomach did a flip. He only had three minutes to get it into the printers before he lost.
He gasped and gathered his documents and made a run for the elevator. He was followed by Takano.
Takano breezed past him in no time and beat him to the elevator and waited until Ritsu got right on the door and closed it before he could enter.
Ritsu gasped. "That is cheating you asshole." he yelled as the doors closed.
He then looked to the staircase. He gripped his papers tightly and started running down the stairs as fast as he could without tripping. He huffed as he got down one flight and had one more to go.
He panted and finally made it to the last step and ran towards the printing department. He ran as fast as he could. He breathed heavily as he finally arrived and looked around for the printing supervisor.
Ritsu looked around and then he finally found him standing beside Takano and was talking to him.
He approached them quickly and ran over to him and sighed. "I have the printing number." he said.
Takano smiled and looked down at Ritsu.
"As I was saying, you should really come to the next meeting. Oh by the way, this is the new succesor to Onodera Publishing Company." he said and pointed to Ritsu.
The supervisor smiled and his eyes went soft. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I am Asahina." he said and smiled.
Ritsu nodded. "It's a pleasure to meet you but I have come here on buis-" he began.
"Oh and he is a very skilled editor, he used to edit for Akihiko Usami." he said.
Asahina smiled. "Really now? That is quite interesting, it just so happens that my boss is a friend of his, you know him Isaka-san." he said.
Ritsu nodded. "Y-yes. I know him." he said. "Anyway, I'm really on a tigh-" he began again, but once again was cut off.
Takano nodded and looked at his watch secretly and then cleared his throat. "Well we have came up with the prining number for Yoshizumi's new release." he said and took the documents from Ritsu and handed them to Asahina. "This is it." he said.
Asahina looked through it and nodded. "Thank you, and thanks for the hard work." he said and bowed and walked off. "Oh, and Onodera-san, it was a pleasure meeting you." he said.
Ritsu sighed and relaxed. He had won. He turned and was about to walk away when he was stopped. Takano placed his hand on Ritsu shoulder with a big grin on his face.
"Where are you going?" Takano asked.
Ritsu looked at him. "I won, I am leaving." he said. "So please do what you promised and leave me alone." he said.
Takano then chuckled and leaned down to Ritsu's ear so only he could hear. "Now Onodera, don't you know how to tell time?" he asked.
Ritsu's face went into confusion. "What are you talking about, I had three minutes from the meeting room, I made it downstairs in two." he said.
Takano's face only lit up more with a smile. "Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention...the clock in the meeting room is five minutes late." he said. "So really...the bet ended 8 minutes ago." he whispered.
Ritsu stared in disbelief. He quickly got out his cellphone and sure enough, it was eight minutes past his deadline. He felt his insides twist up, but it wasn't in what he expected. Instead of feeling dispare, he felt relief.
He looked at Takano, his cheeks bright red. "Uh...I." he whispered.
Takano smiled and took Ritsu's wrist and pulled him to the bathroom and locked the door. He gently pushed Ritsu against the bathroom door. He looked into his eyes for a moment and then gently leaned down and kissed his lips lightly.
Ritsu shivered under the kiss and his eyes were wide in surprise. His heart was beating rapidly.
Takano chuckled. "Let's enjoy our life together...dear Ritsu." he whispered and hugged Ritsu tightly and buried his face in Ritsu's shoulder. "Finally...finally...you are mine again." he whispered.
Ritsu felt hot tears brimming up in his eyes. He felt them spill down his cheeks. He sighed and shook his head as he gently brought his arms around Takano.
"You got me..." he whispered ever so softly as he let himself fall into the strong and warm embrace of his ten year love. He relaxed into him, surrending everything to him. Not hiding anything from him.
"Ritsu...I love you." Takano whispered and pulled back and pressed his forehead to Ritsu's and looked him in the eyes.
Ritsu blushed and his face was at peace. He looked back into Takano's eyes. "I...I...I love you to." he whispered.
Takano smiled and let his eyes slip close. He bathed in those sweet words that Ritsu finally admitted. "I knew it all along." he whispered.
He smiled and kissed Ritsu gently, for the longest time. Never letting go of him again, together forever more...
Meanwhile outside the bathroom door an impatient Yokozawa was standing. "Who locked this damn door!" he called out and walked away.
THE END
Well that was it everyone~! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT~! You guys have been amazing in reviewing and I hope you guys enjoyed the story, it has been a blast writing it~! PLEASE REVIEW THIS FINAL CHAPTER, it would meen so much to me! Thank you so much everyone, I hope you guys will continue to read my stories~! MWAHHH~ O3O (kiss to you all)