The major cities of Japan were firmly gripped by a deep, biting winter chill that seemed to seep into the very bones of the populace. However, even the most freezing weather and the howling winds had no power to dampen the fiery passion of the dedicated ACG community. As was typical for a release day, long lines had already begun to form in front of bookstores during the early morning hours, well before the sun had even fully crested the horizon.
Prime Manga had ensured that the supply of their flagship magazine remained incredibly high; a small-scale shortage was rare in the city, and a large-scale stockout was virtually impossible given their massive distribution network.
These fans woke up at the crack of dawn and braved the frost not because they were genuinely afraid the magazine would sell out, but because they desperately wanted to be the very first people to see the latest plot developments. It was a race against time to protect themselves from the catastrophe of being spoiled.
In the modern world, if you were part of any anime, light novel, or manga group chat, nearly seventy percent of the daily discussion revolved around Haruto's latest works.
Unless you decided to stay offline entirely and isolate yourself from the community, buying the magazine even a few hours late meant either having nothing to contribute to the social circle or walking into a digital minefield of spoilers.
Chouko stood outside a local bookstore, her body shivering rhythmically in the biting cold.
When the doors finally creaked open, a swarm of fans surged forward, and five minutes later, she had successfully secured a copy.
With the popularity of the series surging, the magazine had given Hunter x Hunter the absolute star treatment, featuring it as the sole series on the glossy cover. Interestingly, the cover art did not feature the protagonist, Gon. Instead, it was a striking, high-contrast illustration of Kurapika. His expression was chillingly calm, yet his pupils had transformed into a vivid, burning scarlet.
He looked incredibly handsome and refined, yet one could feel a wave of suppressed, deadly intent radiating from his gaze through the paper.
"Shizuru-senpai's skill is truly on an entirely different level," Chouko whispered to herself with a sigh of admiration.
Chouko was a high school senior with her own artistic ambitions. A few years ago, when she was still in middle school, she had attended the same school as her senior, Shizuru. As fellow art students, they had even shared the same mentor for a period of time.
They were schoolmates, but while Shizuru had ascended to become an elite figure in the manga industry, Chouko was currently losing sleep over whether her course grades would be high enough for her impending university entrance exams.
Chouko shook off her lingering melancholy and hurried home with the magazine tucked under her arm. Once inside the warmth of her house, she huddled by the heater and flipped open the latest issue.
This chapter picked up the Trick Tower arc where the candidates were forced into a series of duels against hardened prisoners. The first round had seen Gon win a high-stakes candle-burning contest by outsmarting his opponent and blowing out their light. The second round, however, featured Kurapika stepping onto the platform against a massive, grotesque man covered in muscles.
"Is the actual action finally starting?" Chouko wondered, her heart beginning to race with genuine anticipation.
The magazine had explicitly labeled this series as a "Shonen Battle" work, yet in the three months since its debut, there hadn't been a single traditional, blow-by-blow fight. While the plot was undeniably addictive, the lack of action had made some readers feel like they were experiencing a bit of a bait-and-switch.
The chapter quickly established that the match between Kurapika and the muscleman was a duel to the death. When the man pulled off his hood to reveal his true face, Chouko's expression froze in a grimace of disgust.
"Good grief... this guy is absolutely hideous!"
His features were warped, he was missing several teeth, and he had a lecherous, oily grin that made her skin crawl. It was honestly hard for her to believe that the elegant and refined Shizuru could bring herself to draw such a repulsive, bottom-tier villain.
"I've killed nineteen people so far, but I don't particularly like the number nineteen. I'm getting excited... finally, the twentieth victim has come here to die," the man sneered, flexing his scarred arms.
Chouko rolled her eyes at the dialogue. This villain had zero class and even less charisma. Bragging about nineteen kills was pathetic for a shonen manga antagonist in a world designed by Haruto.
"Once the duel starts, don't you dare expect me to stop my assault just because you try to surrender," the muscleman said, trying to sound intimidating.
"Understood. We have a deal," Kurapika replied, his voice flat and his eyes cold and focused.
The story soon revealed that the man was nothing more than a paper tiger. His massive, intimidating physique was a surgical fraud, and his terrifying appearance was simply the unfortunate result of several failed plastic surgeries.
His actual combat ability was non-existent, but his cowardice was undeniable. He was merely trying to use a "tough guy" persona to scare Kurapika into an immediate surrender. When he realized Kurapika wasn't falling for the act, he used a hidden device in his arm to punch a hole in the stone floor to show off his "strength."
Then, he pulled back his shirt to reveal a tattoo of a twelve-legged spider on his back.
Gon and the others watching from the side immediately provided the exposition for the mark. belonging to the Phantom Troupe, a notorious, world-class group of assassins and thieves. They were the very monsters who had slaughtered Kurapika's entire clan in cold blood to steal their legendary, glowing Scarlet Eyes.
Chouko perked up instantly. This was major, world-building content. But was a member of the legendary Phantom Troupe really this much of a pathetic, posturing weakling?
"What's the matter? Scared into silence? If you want to beg for mercy right now, I might consider giving you a chance to live," the man boasted with a loud, fake laugh.
Chouko's expression went dark at the incredibly tacky name and title. The villain's "cool factor" was already below zero, and that name just buried it even further. She flipped the page, and her breath caught in her throat. The art detail on the next panel had suddenly skyrocketed in quality. Manga artists often prioritize their efforts; they keep the linework simple for dialogue-heavy scenes but pour every ounce of their soul into the climax.
Chouko read on, completely mesmerized.
"Is he frozen in fear?" Tonpa wondered aloud, clearly enjoying Kurapika's apparent predicament. Leorio watched his teammate from the sidelines with a deeply worried and tense expression.
"Kurapika is angry," Gon said softly, his voice lacking its usual cheer.
The manga gave Kurapika a stunning full-face close-up. His expression was one of pure, icy murder, and his pupils had fully transformed into the legendary scarlet color. Because Kurapika was drawn with such delicate beauty, the shift to his glowing red eyes gave him an eerie, supernatural, and dangerous aura.
Female fans reacted exactly like those in the parallel world, this was the definitive moment they fell head over heels for the character.
Kurapika looked as though he had entered a trance, moving forward with a chilling, expressionless silence. The muscleman panicked, his facade crumbling as he shouted for Kurapika to stay back.
In the next panel, Kurapika leaped into the air with blinding speed and leveled the man with a single, crushing punch, smashing his jaw directly into the stone floor. Standing over the fallen fraud, Kurapika looked down with a gaze that burned with a lonely, terrifying, and profound anger.
"I will give you three pieces of advice."
"First, a true member of the Phantom Troupe has their specific member number tattooed inside the spider."
"Second... they have killed so many people that they don't even bother to keep a count of their victims."
"Third... never speak the name of the Phantom Troupe again as long as you live. If you do, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and I will not show mercy."
Chouko felt her heart soften as she looked at Kurapika's beautiful, sorrowful face in the closing panels. Up until this point, Chouko had a mixed relationship with the rest of the cast. She found Hisoka to be terrifying, Tonpa to be disgusting, and Gon to be a bit too simple for her personal taste.
She liked Leorio because of his recent emotional backstory, but today, she became a total Kurapika fan.
Shizuru had masterfully deepened the emotional weight of the scene, making it impossible not to empathize with his deep-seated pain.
After knocking out the imposter with a single blow, Kurapika returned to the waiting area, refusing to deal a finishing blow to a defenseless man.
However, because it was officially a duel to the death and the man was merely unconscious rather than deceased, the match wasn't technically over.
The candidates were running out of time, and this stalemate was eating away at their precious remaining hours. Leorio urged Kurapika to just finish the job, after all, the man was a convicted murderer.
But Kurapika refused.
"I will not strike a man who is already down," he said calmly.
"I take it you've never actually killed anyone before? Are you afraid of the feeling?" Killua asked, stepping forward with a mature expression that contrasted with his age.
Chouko flipped the page with trembling fingers, only to see the dreaded words.
To Be Continued.
It felt like someone had snatched a gourmet meal away right before her very last bite. She hadn't felt this level of intense withdrawal in six months. Back when Initial D was at its peak, she felt this way every single week. She had mistakenly thought Hunter x Hunter was going to be lighter, but this cliffhanger was absolutely brutal.
"Dammit, Haruto! What are you doing to us?" she grumbled to the empty room. Chouko flipped back to look at the art of Kurapika's Scarlet Eyes once more.
The fans across Japan were having a similar, massive collective meltdown. Discussion boards were on fire. While male fans usually bonded over Leorio's tragic past, the female audience was now firmly and vocally in Kurapika's camp.
This mirrored the history of other legendary works where certain characters possessed massive, dedicated female followings. Kurapika filled that same role perfectly.
"Girls, did you see Kurapika this week? He is so incredibly cool I can't even breathe!"
"I actually cried. The loneliness in that panel... I just want to protect him."
"Even as a guy, I thought that chapter was amazing. Haruto is a master of characterization. He tells so much about a character's soul with so little dialogue."
"This is what real, high-level manga looks like!"
"I'm officially addicted to this series. At first, I only read it to have something to talk about with my friends at school, but now I'd read it even if I were stranded on a desert island. It's genuinely good."
"I thought a series with no superpowers and a kid with a fishing rod would be boring, but I can't stop turning the pages. I'm so glad I didn't let the weird title scare me off."
"But seriously, Haruto's cliffhangers are becoming a legitimate health hazard for the readers."
Thanks to Kurapika's sudden and massive surge in popularity among the female readers, this specific issue received a record-breaking 3.3 million votes. The series' overall rating climbed to a near-perfect 9.6 out of 10.
Prime Manga, seeing these staggering numbers during their executive meeting, made a decision. After communicating with Haruto, they officially announced that the first volume of the Hunter x Hunter tankobon would go into printing and be released immediately.