Shou had a very productive week. As he was done with his tasks and it was Friday, after freshening up and eating dinner, he opened his new Echo Shroud issue.
A few years back, before he discovered Muzishiro's works, he had been getting tired of shounen tropes. Most of the time, their stories could be told in half the length and still have the same impact. There was nothing compelling about it anymore since its demographic was for children. Because of that, he had decided to move into seinen and other genres, and only read those from now on.
One day, his friend said, "Hey, you should give Muzishiro's works a try. They're completely different from most current works and even within the genres he picks, his style is completely different."
Since shounen no longer held his interest, his friend suggested he start with Rurouni Kenshin, one of Muzishiro's early works, which his friend owned as an exclusive volume. It had only one volume, so it wouldn't take much time.
When he finished reading it, goosebumps ran down his arms. It was hard to believe someone's debut work could be such a masterpiece. It instantly went up among his favorite works despite being only one volume. He wanted to buy exclusive copies, as Kurowa, the original publishing house, had a fallout with Muzishiro, so they had only a limited amount of copies.
Shou really wanted to get them for whatever price he could pay, but he was too late. Most of Muzishiro's fans had already bought them and were keeping them as treasures. He even offered his friend ten times the original price, then thirty, but still, his friend wasn't willing to part with it. Whenever news about a Rurouni Kenshin volume surfaced, Shou went on hunts, but they always turned out to be false. It was a sacred volume for Muzishiro's fans and no one was willing to sell it. All he could do was hope they would reprint the Rurouni Kenshin volume someday.
After finishing it, he was sure nothing could top that manga that was only one volume long. It was such a strong work that he couldn't imagine anything surpassing it. On MyAnimeList, its rating was 9.2 with 300k votes, one of the most acclaimed works, though still pretty underground. Even then, he wasn't sure Muzishiro could top Rurouni Kenshin.
Still, Shou tried his other works and found them strong. Muzishiro had a pretty diverse catalog with standouts in every genre. Slowly, it started bringing out Shou's inner shounen phase again, the one he thought he had grown out of.
He had liked Madoka Magic, 5cm/s, Initial D. He appreciated the attempt at Natsume's Book of Friends, but it wasn't his cup of tea. Still, he respected the effort to bring fresh work to fans. Still, none of it came close to Rurouni Kenshin for him until Muzishiro released his new manga Fullmetal Alchemist, which hooked him from the Elric brothers' past chapter.
From then on, he followed Fullmetal Alchemist chapters weekly. He also liked the art style and story of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It felt refreshing to read. He had even bought the volume of JoJo Part 1, which he enjoyed. As he started appreciating older works more, JoJo Part 1 felt close to that style, which made it even better.
So as he picked up his issue today and started reading the new Fullmetal Alchemist chapter, he remembered something he had read online, posted by someone, and it had become pretty well-known among Muzishiro's fandom over the past few months: the reading order was to read everything else first, then Fullmetal Alchemist, and then read JoJo to heal from whatever Muzishiro threw at them in Fullmetal Alchemist.
There were still some who were skeptical, thinking Muzishiro was going to ambush them in JoJo. Some people had strong trust issues with Muzishiro, as they couldn't accept that he could write happy works. At first, he hadn't thought much of it until the Nina Chimera chapter. After that, he had accepted and adjusted to his style as well.
In the previous chapter, the Elric brothers and Winry had headed toward Dublin to meet their teacher.
As he opened today's chapter,
it began with Hughes talking to Elicia.
"Well, papa's going to be on his way."
Elicia said, "Are you going to come home early today, papa?"
Reading this, Shou smiled. The sweetness of the moment was almost too pure.
Maes left for work. There he was reading news of Liore where the Elric brothers had gone. There had started a war which had gotten out of control.
Then as the chapter went on, Maes seemed to have gotten an idea. He went to the archives to confirm it.
As he was going through the files, Lust appeared.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you… or should I say farewell, Lieutenant Hughes," she said, drawing her claws.
Maes spotted the tattoo of the ouroboros. He launched a surprise attack, diving past her and throwing a knife at her head as he escaped.
He walked past the reception and headed toward the booth, but stopped, changed his mind, and went outside, calling from the booth instead.
While giving his password, the photo of his family slipped out of his diary and fell to the floor.
Seeing this, Shou was on edge while reading. Something bad was going to happen. He could feel it.
Then one of the officers pointed her gun at Maes.
As he turned, Hughes said,
"You look like Lieutenant Ross… but you don't look like her. Who are you, lady?"
"You have forgotten me. I am 2nd Lieutenant Ross, have you forgotten me?" she replied.
"No, you're not. Drop the act. 2nd Lieutenant Ross has a mole under her eye," Maes said.
Again he turned quickly, swinging his knife, but the person had taken the body of Gracia.
As he hesitated, she shot him, and as he fell, the phone continued ringing toward Roy.
But the person who had turned had been Envy.
And the chapter ended.
Reading this, Shou started tearing up a little.
Not because Maes was dead. He was sad for that, but he was more sad for Elicia. Now she would not see her papa.
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com/Alioth23 for 60+ advanced chapters)