Chapter 64 - 63

Words : 1255 Updated : Sep 30th, 2025

Chapter 64 of "I just want to quietly draw manga" kicks off with: Akira leaned closer as the first panels loaded. The opening lines cut through the quiet... Continue reading!

Akira leaned closer as the first panels loaded. The opening lines cut through the quiet of the night: "I am dying, you know. The world is like this now. So are the hearts of people." Paired with a mature, contemporary art style, even those two sentences were enough to make Akira nod in quiet approval. He'd grown weary of overly cutesy, school‐themed manga. This felt different—refreshing, almost like a cool wind after a long, hot summer. The story began simply: a young boy, cornered in a rain‐slick alley, pursued by a squad of assassins. Women, all of them—beautiful, skilled, utterly relentless. Akira's chest tightened as each strike landed, not from gore, but from the realness of it. Every bruise, every splash of blood, was rendered with deliberate, careful brushstrokes. Then, in a flash of steel and shadow, a figure intervened: Hiko Seijūrō, an enigmatic swordsman whose calm presence scattered the attackers. He rescued the boy, then whisked him away into a world of strict discipline, secret orders, and the relentless pursuit of mastery. The first chapter unfolded with quiet tension. The pacing was measured—no rush of spectacle—yet Akira found himself utterly absorbed. The fight scenes flowed like water, and the characters' emotions felt genuine. By the end, though, he still thought: "This is good... but nothing I haven't seen before." So, almost absent‐mindedly, he clicked on the next chapter. And then the story hit him. In Chapter Two, the boy—now revealed as Kenshin—stood cold and precise in a moonlit alley. He dispatched an assassin with a single, fluid motion. The blade whispered. Blood glittered on the cobblestones. It was brutal. And Akira, for the first time in a long while, found himself murmuring, "Damn... that's cool." On the very next page, the tone shifted. There she was: a woman draped in a white kimono, holding a paper umbrella speckled with blood. Her face, her clothes, even the umbrella bore the stain of violence—but her expression was serene, unreadable. No shock. No horror. Just... stillness. She was as striking as a plum blossom in winter. That contrast—beauty and brutality—pulled Akira in. His heart pounded. Who is she? What does she want with Kenshin? Then the chapter's final panels arrived, each line delivered like a dagger: "You..." "Really can..." "Bring about..." "A storm of blood..." No accusation. No despair. Just a quiet truth that sent a chill down his spine. The chapter ended, leaving Akira staring at his screen. He didn't hesitate. He clicked forward, hungry for more. His inner critic vanished—he was simply a reader, utterly enthralled. By the time Chapter Three began, he'd already paid to unlock the rest. Kenshin carried the woman—now known as Tomoe—to safety after she collapsed. Their refuge was a secluded countryside home, masquerading as husband and wife. There, among golden fields and hushed breezes, every glance, every small kindness, carried weight. Moments like these lingered: "Children... even children can be taught to kill." "When you're not killing... you're so gentle." "I... I'll protect you." And then, finally, "Tomoe... I'll guard your happiness, whatever it takes." As he read those words, Akira felt something inside him shift. This wasn't just another swordsman tale—it was a story of two souls reshaping each other, finding light in the darkest places. He closed the page, breathless. So this is what deserves a 9.8. And now... he needed to see what came next. There were only a handful of words, but as Akira read through the chapter, those simple lines struck something deep within him. The faint smile on Tomoe's face as she rested in Kenshin's arms at the end of Chapter Ten made his heart skip a beat. Two people, caught in the chaos of a violent era—Kenshin, who killed for the sake of his ideals, and Tomoe, who had once approached him seeking revenge—had ended up saving each other in quiet, painful ways neither of them expected. As the chapter ended, Akira instinctively clicked to read the next. But the page that loaded made him blink in confusion. A pop-up appeared: "You've reached the latest chapter." "...What?" He stared at the screen. Only ten chapters? That was it? And yet... this was already in the running for the award? That didn't make sense. But then again, he thought back to everything he had just read. If this didn't qualify, what would? The same thought circled in his mind again and again: This manga is incredible. It took a few moments for him to pull himself out of the story's atmosphere. He hadn't felt that absorbed by a manga in years. Each chapter had been a slow, deliberate read. He hadn't skimmed. He hadn't rushed. He just let it unfold. By the time he looked at the clock, it was nearly four in the morning. "...Guess that's enough for tonight." Just as he moved to close the tab, another prompt appeared. "Please rate this work." It was an automatic feature on the manga platform—after finishing a series or leaving the reader, users were asked to submit a score. Only then did Akira remember why he'd opened the manga in the first place. "...A rating, huh?" He let out a small laugh. If it had been any other day, he would've given it a clean nine without thinking twice. That was his rule—no matter how good something was, ten felt too absolute. Too final. He'd never believed anything could be perfect. Even Blazing Feather had gotten a nine. But now? Could he honestly give this the same score? It didn't sit right. After a long moment of hesitation, he sighed and clicked. Ten. Submit. By four in the morning, the Aurora Manga Award platform had already been live for hours. Thousands of readers were logged in, browsing through the year's top contenders from across the country. Big-name series like Blazing Feather had already started collecting high scores and comments by the hundreds. But just before heading to bed, Akira checked the rankings one last time. Blazing Feather, which had been holding strong at a 9.0 rating earlier, had slipped slightly to 8.9. And Rurouni Kenshin: Remembrance? It held steady at 9.8. Not just holding the top spot—but holding it effortlessly. After ten chapters, Akira understood exactly why the score hadn't moved. It wasn't hype. It wasn't luck. It was well-deserved. He lingered for a moment longer, then copied the link and dropped it into his group chat. "Just found a ridiculously good manga. Worth a read if you've got the time." Satisfied, he shut his laptop and climbed into bed. But even after the lights were off and the room fell quiet, the story kept replaying in his mind. It took him a long time to fall asleep. All across the manga world, the same thing was happening. New readers were finding Rurouni Kenshin: Remembrance—some from rankings, others through word of mouth. Most clicked in with mild curiosity. And then couldn't stop reading. The comments were flooding in, one after another, praising the characters, the pacing, the emotional depth. And still... that 9.8 score never wavered. Not only was it sitting at the top of the charts— Its number of paying readers was growing faster than anyone had anticipated. (TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-atreon.com/Alioth23 for 50+ advanced chapters)

Chapter 64 - 63

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