Tokyo: The Manga Begins with the Funeral of Frilian

Yuma Kamiya pointed to the center of the screen.

"Aura is standing on a high ground in front of the battle line. Her line of sight should be looking down at the entire legion, but all the soldiers you drew are facing the reader directly. Not a single one is drawn from an overhead angle. As a result, the perspective is completely wrong."

Hoshino Rin's pupils contracted slightly.

She shifted her position and went to check the content of the double-page spread she had drawn once more.

After watching for five seconds.

Her face turned somewhat pale.

"There's one more thing."

Yuma raised her hand.

The finger pointed to a corner of the screen, where several rows of figures were visible.

"The core of the Undead Legion is the 'dominated.' They are not standing there voluntarily, but are forcibly controlled by Aura's magic. The soldiers you drew are standing too straight and too neatly, like a National Day parade. But the undead creatures that are truly dominated should be unnatural, twisted, and full of incongruity. Their joints should be bent backward, and their posture should be crooked. That's what it means to be 'controlled.'"

Hoshino Rin stood still.

Hands hanging down at your sides.

She was wearing a mask, which covered most of her face.

However, the corners of the eyes that were exposed had turned red.

"I drew for a full seven hours."

"The length of time spent drawing has nothing to do with how well it is done."

Yuma Kamiya placed the manuscript on the table.

  

"Your problem isn't that the drawing isn't detailed enough; it's that you simply don't understand what this battle is trying to depict."

"I've studied the original work."

"But in fact, you haven't studied Frilian at all."

Yuma Kamiya turned around and looked at her.

"Do you know why Frilian killed Aura? It wasn't because Aura was one of the Seven Demons of Collapse, nor because she had five hundred years of magic power. The real reason was that Aura took 'obedience' for granted. She turned everyone she killed into her pawns, ensuring they could never rest in peace. That's what Frilian couldn't tolerate the most."

He pointed to the soldiers on the original manuscript.

"The soldiers you drew may just be background figures to you, but in the original story, every dead person controlled by Aura was someone who once had their own name, family, and story. They were deprived of the right to rest in peace. The reason you can't draw that feeling is because all you're thinking about is the skeletal structure, not the story itself."

Hoshino Rin opened her mouth.

He couldn't utter a word.

Yuma Kamiya picked up his dip pen again.

"Get out of the way."

Hoshino Rin took half a step back.

He pulled out a new sheet of manuscript paper.

When the brush touches the paper.

The air in the master bedroom seemed to freeze instantly.

No one speaks.

Shiori Shirakawa stood by the door, holding a teacup in her hand.

Hoshino Rin stood beside the painting table, her eyes gradually widening.

Yuma Kamiya's hand movements were so fast that it was hard to believe that this was a speed that a human could achieve.

The pen moves across the clean paper.

He can sketch out the layout without needing to make a draft beforehand.

He doesn't need to use guide lines to calibrate perspective at the bottom of the paper.

The wasteland slowly unfolded, revealing the cracked earth beneath.

The cracks stretched out one after another, all leading towards the same point at the end of the image.

On the high ground, Aura stood silently, the undead army at her feet.

The soldiers' postures were quite strange: some had their necks twisted at extremely odd angles, some had their arm joints bent in the opposite direction, and some had their shoulders as if they were being pulled by invisible threads.

Being suspended high up, the entire field of vision is filled with this posture.

"This is not a military parade."

Yuma raised her hand high.

Directly below him was a clear sky.

He drew a shimmering, luminous rune in the sky.

"This is what it looks like to be dominated."

The magic circle emitted a halo of light, which shone on the faces of the warriors, and the surrounding skeletons all fell silent.

What's most terrifying is that not a single skeleton is putting up a fight.

Hoshino Rin stood to the side, her lips trembling beneath her mask.

She watched as Yuma Kamiya finished writing the last stroke.

Immediately afterwards, Kamiya Yuma placed the wet pen on the pen holder.

In front of the canvas, Aura lowered his head.

Her eyes were fixed on the team under her command.

There was not a trace of arrogance on her face, just as people don't care how many insects they've stepped on before.

Kamiya Yuma drew for ten minutes, then he turned around and looked at Hoshino Rin.

"Now you know where the problem lies?"

Hoshino Rin didn't speak. She stared at the manuscript for a long time before taking off her mask.

A face appeared before me, having not been exposed to the sun for a long time.

The face appeared transparent white, with red marks on the bridge of the nose caused by the mask pressing against it.

She knelt down, her voice trembling: "Please accept me as your disciple."

She continued.

"I've been searching in Tokyo for a year and a half, but not a single professional manga artist is willing to take me on. They say my drawings have no soul, but no one has told me what a soul is. Today I've finally seen it. Please take me on as your apprentice. I'm willing to be your assistant for free, even without an hourly wage. Just let me see how you draw every day, that's enough."

Kamiya Yuma looked at her and said, "Stand up."

"Don't stand up."

Rin Hoshino persisted.

"Stand up first."

Kamiya Yuma said again.

"You must first agree to take me as your apprentice."

Rin Hoshino responded.

At this moment, Shiori Shirakawa placed the teacup on the edge of the table.

Then she stepped forward, gently placed her hand on Hoshino Rin's shoulder, and said softly.

"Get up first, the floor is cold, your knees will hurt."

Hoshino Rin looked up at her.

Shiori Shirakawa sighed and turned to Yuuma Kamiya: "Kamiya-kun, just say yes to her."

Kamitani Yuuma leaned against the drawing table and said, "You'll still get your hourly wage as an assistant. If you want to learn, then learn seriously."

Hoshino Rin stood up and asked, "Then should I call you teacher from now on?"

"Call me whatever you want."

Yuma Kamiya answered.

"Master."

Rin Hoshino used the most formal form of honorifics.

Shiori Shirakawa stood beside her, noticing something swirling in the girl's eyes. She said, "I'll go heat up the food. You haven't eaten yet, have you?"

Hoshino Rin nodded.

At that moment, her stomach started rumbling, and the whole room could hear it.

She said somewhat embarrassedly, "I haven't eaten for three days."