He had a lifetime of stolen martial arts moves, each one a masterpiece of sequential art. And he had something even more dangerous: the mindset of a weekly shonen mangaka. He had met three hundred deadlines. He had endured twelve editors. He had drawn backgrounds on Christmas Eve.
Kensuke didn’t think. He moved as he had taught his characters to move. His right hand, the hand that had inked a hundred thousand panels, snapped forward in a palm strike. But it wasn’t a palm strike. It was the “Heaven-Piercing Stroke” —a technique he’d invented for the protagonist of his martial arts epic, Fist of the Ivory Tower . He had a lifetime of stolen martial arts
Instinctively, his fingers traced the air. Left to right. A sweeping arc. A decisive downward chop. He had endured twelve editors
Kensuke cracked his knuckles—a sound like rifle shots. He looked at the dark citadel on the horizon, where a tyrannical warlord known as the “King of Erasure” had outlawed all art and storytelling. He moved as he had taught his characters to move
A crowd of armored knights surrounded the crater, their faces pale with terror.