I SPY

I SPY (アイスパイ) is a one-shot manga created by Tatsuya Endo.

The one-shot was originally published in the March 2018 issue of Jump SQ on February 2, 2018. The one-shot was later reprinted in Shōnen Jump+ on November 29, 2021, in place of a normal SPY x FAMILY chapter, with extra content describing its connection to the manga series.

Synopsis
A4, a spy for the Ministry of Defense, is dedicated to defending Japan against foreign agents from the shadows and has earned the name of Phantom for his ability. He meets Mamiru Kai, a normal high school girl with extraordinary abilties and a crush on him, and many misunderstandings ensue between them.

Summary
The chapter starts with Suzuki seducing a woman in bed. He then copies the data from her phone when she's asleep. On his way to work, Suzuki is revealed to be a spy for the Ministry of Defense, also known as A4. As he exits the railway station, he detects someone following him and suspects it to be an assassin plotting to kill him, and considers whether to kill him before choosing not to as to avoid standing out. It shows three high school girls stalking him behind a corner. One of the girls, Shi-chan, tries to suggest they stop following him before being shushed by another girl, Non-chan. As Suzuki tries to turn his head to look at who's following him, Mamiru quickly hides behind the wall with her face blushing. Non-chan remarks on Mamiru's shyness and her crush on Suzuki, though Mamiru tries to deny it. Shi-chan bluntly suggests Mamiru just confess to Suzuki directly, causing Mamiru to get flustered at the thought and have a nosebleed as Non-chan explains Mamiru's reclusive upbringing in the mountains. After Mamiru quickly licks the blood off her face, Non-chan points out that Suzuki has disappeared and Shi-chan drags her to school before they're late.

In class, Mamiru is visibly distraught that she always loses sight of Suzuki when she's managed to get close to him. Shi-chan suggests that he's already discovered her stalking and wonders how Mamiru got a crush on him despite their opposite personalities. Mamiru has a flashback to when she first met Suzuki four days ago. While playing an otome game on the train, she became so flustered that she had another strong nosebleed. As her nosebleed worsens, Suzuki offers his handkerchief to her and she takes it wordlessly, wiping her nose. Suzuki tell her to take care and he tries to gets off the train, but his jacket is caught in the closing doors and Mamiri is mesmerized as he's dragged along with the slowly moving train. Mamiru explains that Suzuki resembled a deer caught in a trap, causing Shi-chan to be confused. Shi-chan reminds her to give thanks for the handkerchief and Mamiru agrees, declaring that she will catch Suzuki the next day.

Suzuki arrives at his workplace, greeting his co-workers as the ladies swoon over him. He is intent on finding out who was following him earlier and accessed the street camera systems on his laptop. Through the cameras, he is able to see Mamiru and her friends following him earlier and is shocked that it was a high school girl. He recognizes her face as the girl he helped on the train and an image of his senior, B3, berates him for letting his guard down. His female co-workers notice he's watching a camera feed of a high school girl and misunderstand, running away from him as he tries to correct them. His male co-worker consoles him and offers to treat him to some drinks. However, he receives a phone call with a coded message from his organization, congratulating him on his previous task. It reveals the data he stole from the woman contained a list of traitors and they give him his next mission to vacate his current post and move on to his next task. He apologizes to his male co-worker as he won't be able to take him up on his offer for drinks today as Suzuki will no longer exist, reminding himself to dedicate himself to the defense of Japan.

On the streets, Mamiru is depressed from being unable to find Suzuki and her friends try to console her by treating her to pancakes. As they walk past a gruff old man, Mamiru quickly turns around and runs after him while her friends follow along. Mamiru tells them she can tell the old man is Suzuki from his smell. While following after him, they notice the old man is also stalking a young woman. Shi-chan becomes suspicious and Non-chan suggests he may be a police detective, causing them to argue. A4 smiles gleefully for finally being able to catch Ritsuko Uragi, a traitor who sells out confidential information to other countries, and Mamiru's two friends both deem him guilty. Mamiru becomes increasing distraught and boldly runs towards A4 as her friends cheer her on. He quickly attempts to run away from her by jumping up buildings using a tool, but Mamiru is able to chase him up easily. She attempts to stop him and give him a bag of cookies, but A4 misunderstands it for a bomb and yells at her to stay away. Shocked, Mamiru stops running and believes she should have just watched him from a distance.

Back on the ground, Mamiru's friends eventually find her and realize she's heartbroken. They take her to eat pancakes as a consolation but Ritsuko and two men stop them with guns. At a construction site, Mamiru and her friends are tied up around a column as Ritsuko asks them about their connection to A4. She mistakes them as enemies of A4 and spies for another country due to Mamiru's chase, revealing his true identity to the girls. On top of a building, A4 removes his old man disguise before receiving an email regarding the background check of Mamiru. The email explains her childhood of living with her grandfather in the mountains before she moved to Tokyo to go to school and that she is a normal high school girl. A4 remains suspicious until he notices the bag of cookies Mamiru left behind nearby. He warily attempts to dispose of the "bomb" but sees the cookies and thinks they're bombs shaped as cookies. He opens a box to look for a switch, becoming confused when he sees a handkerchief. A handwritten note with a doodle of a deer falls out, expressing her appreciation for his help and wishes to get to know him, along with her Line ID. He continues denying, wondering if it's a code but realizes the truth that she's innocent and he's hurt her feelings. He takes a bite of the cookie but coughs out blood from her bad cooking.

Back at the construction site, Mamiru likes A4 even more after learning he's a spy, comparing him to mimicry animals. Ritsuko offers a deal with the girls to get their help in catching A4. Shaking her head, Mamiru rejects Ritsuko's offer and Non-chan asks them to take it easy on Mamiru since she's lost her first love. Since they refuse to help her, Ritsuko orders her men to kill the girls. Before the men can do anything, A4 jumps in and knocks them out, grabbing a gun. He explains he only intended to find Mamiru to apologize but the opportunity to find his target is also good, and that he pinpointed them through Mamiru's Line ID on the note. He apologizes to Mamiru for getting her caught up in the incident and for misunderstanding her intentions, expressing his gratitude to her for finding his faceless self with a smile as well as for the cookies, though he tells her they taste bad.

Angered, Ritsuko takes a bomb out of her cleavage and pulls the pin, intending to take him down with her as revenge for her co-workers. A4 manages to shoot the bomb out of her hand where it explodes outside of the building. Though they are saved from the explosion, the bomb damages the unstable construction site and it begins to collapse. Shi-chan and Non-chan nearly slide off the building, calling Mamiru for help. A4 catches them and gets them to hang on to a column. A4 looks to Mamiru hanging onto a nearby pillar to make sures she's okay, but fails to realize a column falling towards him and gets thrown off the building by the impact. Mamiru leaps after him with a rope anchoring her body to a pillar and catches him by his hand.

Standing over the collapsed remains of the building, A4 remarks that he still needs to extract information from Ritsuko. Mamiru tells him that she's also caught her, pointing towards a woman hanging upside down from a pillar with a rope. Impressed by her ability, A4 suggests she come to work with his organization after she's graduated and become his partner. Shocked, Mamiru begins to have a nosebleed from excitement and expresses that she's glad she came down from the mountain.

Five years after the incident, Mamiru has joined A4 as a spy with the codename B5. On a mission with A4, she's sad when she realizes she's with him just as a normal partner. She attempts to give him macarons she baked, but he takes them while berating her for being distracted while at work. She wonders if she needs to work harder to get him to like her more. In truth, A4 can't be honest and tearfully eats her macarons in secret while expressing how cute she is. The two continue to defeat enemies and defending Japan together, jumping over buildings. Below, adult Shi-chan and Non-chan meet up with each other.

A4 or Suzuki (鈴木)
A spy and a member of the Ministry of Defense Information Bureau in Japan. He is also known as the Phantom and has been a spy for 10 years. At the start, he works at a trading business as a disguise, but is later ordered to leave his job after completing his task. Due to the nature of his true job, he is overly cautious and suspicious of others. Despite his and Mamiru's mutual feelings in the end, he is unable to be honest and behaves as a strict senior to her.

A4 is a man with short black hair and bangs swept to the left, and wears half-rim glasses. He is well dressed, wearing a three piece suit. He wears a wristwatch on his left hand. He is descibed by his female co-workers to be cool and handsome, causing him to be fairly popular. Like Twilight, he is skilled at disguises and dresses as an old man with a thick beard to investigate Ritsuko.

Mamiru Kai (甲斐まみる)
A second year high school student at Ichishibashi Girls' Academy. She was raised by her Matagi grandfather in the mountains of Akita after her parents passed away when she was 9. As a result, she has a modest personality and strong hunting-related abilities like hiding her presence. She is easily flustered and has a nosebleed whenever she gets excited. Like Yor, Mamiru is bad at cooking, to the point A4 initially thinks her cookies are poisoned. After she is recruited by A4, her codename is B5.

Mamiru is a young teenage girl with mid-length black hair that reaches to her neck and bangs that curl slightly to the right side. She wears a black school uniform with stitches and a ribbon at the collar, and a short tartan skirt. When travelling outside, she also wears a scarf that appears to be made from a bear's claw. She sports mid-calf black socks and black school shoes. As an adult, her hair is slightly longer and now tied up in a ponytail.

Shi-chan (しーちゃん)
One of Mamiru's close friends and a second year high school student at Ichishibashi Girls' Academy. She is down-to-earth with a strict personality and is quite blunt in her advice to Mamiru.

Shi-chan is a young teenage girl with straight light hair that reaches about chest-length and bangs parted to the sides. Similarly to Mamiru, she wears a black school uniform with stitches and a ribbon at the collar, and a short tartan skirt. She sports stockings and black school shoes. As an adult, her hair is cut short.

Non-chan (のんちゃん)
One of Mamiru's close friends and a second year high school student at Ichishibashi Girls' Academy. She appears to be close enough to Mamiru that she knows most of Mamiru's family history. She has a slightly air-headed personality and is more indulgent and supportive of Mamiru's quirks.

Non-chan is a young teenage girl with brunette hair tied into twintails using black ribbons and a short fringe. Similarly to Mamiru, she wears a black school uniform with stitches and a ribbon at the collar, and a short tartan skirt. When travelling outside, she also wears a light-colored scarf. She sports thigh-high black socks and black school shoes. As an adult, her hair is no longer tied into twintails but about chest-length.

Ritsuko Uragi (宇良木りつこ)
A member and a traitor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asian Bureau who's been responsible for leaking information to other countries for wealth. She kidnaps Mamiru and her friends, mistaking them as spies from another organization, to get information and their help in catching A4, but gives orders to kill them when she realizes her mistake. She later attempts a suicide bombing to bring A4 down with her, but fails and is caught by Mamiru.

Ritsuko is a young woman with wavy light hair that reaches about chest-length. She is described by Shi-chan to be a beautiful woman. She wears a black suit with a short skirt.

Roots of SPY x FAMILY Vol. 3
{{Template:Scroll Box| Part 1 I SPY was published in JUMP SQ. March 2018 issue, and was Endo-sensei's first contemporary story in a long time. The story has a large fan base, and it seems to have a strong connection to SPY×FAMILY. What is the truth behind it? We asked him and his editor, Shihei Lin, to tell us!

Inspiration for the manga
Endo: I made this by digging out an unfinished draft that I drew a long time ago. I don't remember why I chose to make it a spy story, but I think I wanted to make a romantic comedy with a sense of humor. I was reading a lot of shoujo manga at the time. To be honest, I didn't really feel anything for the male character, so I was thinking about how to draw Mamiru-chan in a cute way. In my mind, the main character is Mamiru-chan.

Lin: You gave me the plot of "Spy VS Stalker" first, right? I also received another one, Kudashihime (see below), and we discussed both together, and after sending both to the meeting, we decided on I SPY... but I thought I could publish both of them.

Endo: The theme of I SPY is the same as your previous work, Ishi ni Usubeni, Tetsu ni Hoshi, and it's about "an existence that watches over you”. I didn't decide on a theme from the beginning, so it wasn't a surprise that I ended up with the same theme when I was drawing it, though it may have been an afterthought (laugh).

Memories of the meeting
Endo: I always have a hard time with drafts, but for some reason I was able to draw two of them this time, and I remember Lin-san being surprised. The other story, Kudashihime, was a silly story about a princess who has to endure crap at a political marriage.

Lin: It was the first time I had such a smooth experience. Actually, I had another proposal for a table tennis manga. But this one was going to be a bit of a challenge to develop, so I stopped for now... What made me think it was going so well? (laugh).

Memories of writing
Endo: I drew about 70% of the backgrounds myself, and I thought that modern designs were a bit boring compared to fantasy. Even though TISTA was set in New York, it had a certain atmosphere. I enjoyed drawing the background of Ishi ni Usubeni, Tetsu ni Hoshi...

Lin: In the design of the front cover, I had left an exchange of English sentences to be placed around the image. It was designed with the idea of movie posters in mind, but the English was a bit odd in some places. I enjoyed this kind of creative play. I remember discussing with Endo-sensei whether or not to change "OJISAN" to "OJIISAN" in the lower left corner (laugh). It really doesn't matter, though.

What has influenced your writing
Endo: There is none. In terms of the story, it was a reworking of a past draft, but in terms of the art, I was influenced by the art of the manga artists I was assisting at the time, which I considered to be good. In those days, the drawing style of the manga artists was often so difficult that I would think to myself, "They're skipping that part!?” I learned a lot from them and it made the manga easier to read and more attractive. I'm experimenting with the use of margins and other techniques even more than before.

Part 2 You can already see a bit of SPY×FAMILY in this work, even outside of the genre itself. Let's talk about Endo-sensei's intentions and what he was thinking at the time!

Favorite part of the manga
Endo: I like the relationship between Mamiru-chan and her two friends. It's like a tsukkomi and a boke comedy. I also like the "P cipher" that appears in the middle of the manga, and the highly appropriate names. This has been carried over to SPY×FAMILY.

Lin: I liked the gag-like scenes such as Mamiru's swooning over the deer caught in the trap, and B3-senpai's tsukkomi. There's a similar scene in SPY×FAMILY where homemade cookies are mistaken for a “bomb”, and the misunderstanding leads to laughter. Furthermore, the cookie scene is a good moment where her true intentions are communicated to him, but it is typical of Endo-sensei that he doesn't just leave it as a happy ending, instead saying "Not a bomb, but must be poisoned" (laugh).

Particularly challenging parts
Endo: I'm not used to drawing suits, so I remember looking at the materials and trying my best to draw them. I've never drawn a modern suit before, and through this reading, I learned that "Suits are actually difficult!” It's hard to express the shape and material, and at the time there weren't many materials that showed suits in action.

Deciding on a title
Endo: I was really worried. I like the meaning of I SPY, which is a children's game for "I found it", but I was worried about the lettering.... I wanted to change it at the last minute.

Lin: I think I was going around in circles a lot, too. I had to revise the logo design until the very last minute. Speaking of the front cover, I personally love the heart-shaped bullet holes. The muzzle of the shotgun is also heart-shaped, and I think Endo-sensei has the best design sense!

Endo: Incidentally, the title SPY×FAMILY was Lin-san's idea, but we had a lot of conflicts about it too. I thought, "Spy and family are too direct!” (laugh).

Thoughts after reading it now
Endo: I've always had a terrible naming sense. Since she’s stalking, her name Kai Mamiru is the reading from 垣間見る kaimamiru, meaning to catch a glimpse or peek, her friend Shi-chan is also just from the English word “see”. Ritsuko Uragi from 裏切り uragiri, meaning betrayal, doesn't even seem to be thinking anymore... (laugh). And the code names "A4" and "B5" are the paper sizes.

Lin: I think this naming sense is the best balance for a comedy!

Endo: I feel like I did a pretty good job with the story. It was considered to be a carefully written manuscript, though not as passionate as Ishi ni Usubeni, Tetsu ni Hoshi. I heard that it was well received by readers, and I think it was a technical success. In fact, I didn't have to go through the painful experience that I had with Rengoku no Āshe and I was able to enjoy drawing it myself.

Lin: The questionnaire for I SPY was very good! It was ranked second or third in the Jump SQ. magazine. I was feeling pretty good about this ranking, since we were able to beat out the other serializations in this magazine.

The legacy of SPY×FAMILY
Endo: It's more like a comedy of misunderstandings between spies. However, for about a year between this one-shot and SPY×FAMILY, I kept thinking, "Shouldn't we also consider a more realistic route?” I was sometimes stuck in a corner. I was probably a little hesitant to make this a new manga series. This is why I SPY does not equal SPY×FAMILY.

Lin: Because I SPY did very well with the readers, I remember saying, "Let's do a series about spies!“ However, we didn't have a solid idea of what genre we wanted to work in, so Endo-sensei went through a lot of trial and error. My impression is that SPY×FAMILY is a unique blend that incorporates the two previous one-shots. I feel that the best parts of Rengoku no Āshe, Ishi ni Usubeni, Tetsu ni Hoshi, and I SPY are all packed into SPY×FAMILY.

Endo: In terms of characters, A4 is mostly “Twilight”. Mamiru shares Yor's physical ability, but I think some of her personality has been inherited by Anya. For example, the fact that they work hard at what they like. As for Mamiru's two friends, I guess Becky is playing the same role of the two friends. The rest of the information is not important, but Mamiru's black uniform design with stitching has been slightly carried over to the Eden Academy uniform. I'm rather fond of designs with stitches. With analog, it's tedious, but with digital, it's easy because there are stitch-like dashed lines (laugh).

Lin: Endo-sensei has been working digitally for a long time, but since your last work, you've been working digitally on manga manuscripts more often as well.

Endo: By this time, digital finishing had become the norm, and the drawing method became almost identical to that of SPY×FAMILY today, with characters drawn in analog and finishing in digital. }}

Trivia

 * Mamiru Kai's name is from the reading of the kanji "垣間見る", meaning to peek.
 * The laptop Suzuki uses has the brand 'USO', the Japanese word for a lie.
 * Shi-chan and Non-chan appear to play the tsukkomi and boke roles respectively.
 * Mamiru's physical ability is shared with Yor, but parts of her personality is carried over to Anya.
 * Becky is based off the two friends, Shi-chan and Non-chan.
 * Suzuki and Mamiru's codenames, A4 and B5, are based off paper sizes.
 * The railway station that Suzuki gets off at is Nishikanda, a district of Tokyo.
 * Mamiru's Line ID is Sekogirl Mamiru.