Messages to Kentarou Miura: Kouji Mori (4)

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Part 1 of this translation can be found here.
Part 2 of this translation can be found here.
Part 3 of this translation can be found here.

Page 15

Miura: Made into an anime, made into a TV drama. We’re competing for the first place in the magazine, huh?
Miura: Now we’re…
Mori: For me… I have still a long way to go.

Miura: Please draw it.
Mori: Eh?
Miura: Draw this story.

Miura: Mori-chan will do it.
Mori: Me!? Why me?
Mori: You should draw it because it would sell well!!

Miura: You think I’ll draw a contemporary manga?
Miura: It seems obvious it should be you.
Miura: It’s decided!
Onomatopoeia: *Calmly and innocently* (referring to Miura’s behavior)

Mori: You bastard…

Page 16

I thought he was half-joking, but Miura told me to draw our autobiography whenever we met.
Mori: Well… I still have original stories I want to draw and…

Mori: For a mid-level mangaka like me, writing an autobiography would be shameful… As you would expect.

Miura: No, this involves many things you can do well.
Miura: For example.. see, at the time of that story… Come on.
Mori: Ahh～!! That one! It’s dangerous～!

It’s true I had a mountain of episodes that would be good themes that I wanted to draw.

So, I had finally managed to promise him “to draw it after we turn sixty”.
The conditions were―
Miura would surely participate,
And since I would draw it, I’d draw myself 30 % better than how I really was! *laughs*

After that, Miura let our acquaintances know about it.
Surprisingly, he even asked our close friend (furigana: writer) to novelize it!

Page 17

After I got married, he even emphasized it to Chiaki (furigana: my wife)…

Miura: I’ll make him draw our autobiography, so please cooperate (with me)!!
Chiaki: Yeah!
Mori: You’re besieging me…
For the past few years, he talked about it whenever we met.

My wife and I think it’s mysterious.
Because recently, Miura specifically talked about it (furigana: the autobiography) a lot.

Miura didn’t have any chronic disease in particular.
So he had no reason to take account of the time of his death.
Then why insist so much…

For what reason…
Why…
I’ve kept thinking about it for almost three months already.

Page 18

The promise has become something like his will
So this story is a long preview.

I’m writing here that
I’ll keep my promise to Miura in a few years.

Mori: Now, drawing is Ok, but what about the title?

Miura: It’s.. oh
That’s it
The name of―

Mori: That’s it!

Page 19

Mori: You know, our names are…
Miura: Hmm?
Miura: Our names?

Miura: Miura Kentarou, Mori Kouji...
Miura: Ah

Mori: See?
Mori: We have the same initials

???: Well, maybe it’s nothing special but～
???: I don’t know but it feels like something great!

[Mori-chan & Ken-chan, episode 0]