Kentarou narrowed his eyes slightly.
He was in his second year as a junior staff member at his company now—an office worker through and through—but even so, he knew what the Aurora Manga Awards were.
And this year, the series representing Kurokawa Publishing was... Rurouni Kenshin: Remembrance?
A quiet heat stirred in his chest.
Kentarou wasn't the kind of fan who shouted in online forums or cast dozens of votes in popularity polls. While some readers lived for internet debates and rankings, he was more of the quiet type—he'd buy the issue every week, read it slowly, think about it for a while afterward, then tuck it away into his growing collection.
But now, staring at this poster—the snowy landscape, the soft, wordless gaze between Kenshin and Tomoe—something stirred inside him.
Was this story really reaching beyond just readers like him?
He took a deep breath, trying to rein in the feeling in his chest, then turned the page and began reading the latest chapter.
The story picked up right after Tomoe's brother left the village. Bit by bit, the truth unraveled—Tomoe's enemy was Kenshin all along. And Kenshin's only contact, Katsura's agent, had become a liability to their movement. A quiet storm was brewing around him.
Kentarou braced for a turn toward bloodshed—he expected ambushes, assassinations, something sudden and dark.
But instead, the chapter began simply.
[TL:- try listening to One Last Kiss by Hikaru Utada while reading this.]
Kenshin and Tomoe walked together through falling snow.
Kenshin spoke gently as he walked ahead. Tomoe followed in silence.
The wind howled, and snow fell thick. Tomoe, not as strong physically, stumbled and fell to her knees.
As she tried to steady herself, a hand appeared in front of her—Kenshin's.
"If we stay out here too long, you'll catch a cold…"
His tone was calm, but his eyes were soft.
Tomoe looked up at him, unmoving for a long moment.
In his eyes, she saw something—uncertainty, maybe worry. Maybe kindness.
"I…"
"I will…"
"I will protect you."
Kenshin's voice was quiet but steady.
It was the same scene shown in the poster, now fully revealed in context.
The dialogue wasn't printed on the poster itself—but here, reading it in sequence, the moment hit different.
This… this was what made the story powerful.
Back at the beginning of the arc, Kenshin had sat in a tavern and said the sake tasted like nothing. Empty.
But later, after meeting Tomoe, he drank again—and this time, he said it was good.
And that moment when Tomoe watched him sleep, her voice trembling:
"When you're not killing people… you're so gentle."
In that moment, Tomoe's eyes flickered—just slightly.
These little moments, scattered throughout, revealed not just her character… but how she was changing.
But it wasn't just Tomoe who changed.
Kenshin once said:
"Sakura in spring nights, stars in summer skies, the full moon of autumn, the first snow of winter…"
"If you still think the sake is tasteless in those moments, maybe something inside you is broken."
Back then, he had never noticed any of it.
But after meeting her, he started to see the beauty in the ordinary.
They softened each other. He quieted the rage in her heart. And she calmed the fury in his.
So when Kenshin told her, "I will protect you", the emotion behind it felt real, not melodramatic.
And just like that, Tomoe gave up her plan for revenge.
Later in the chapter, Kenshin looked at her and said something he hadn't said to anyone before.
"When the new era comes… I want to find a way to protect people without killing."
He told her that, with her beside him, maybe he could set down the sword someday.
And then—he said, "I want to protect your happiness."
For the first time in the entire story, Tomoe smiled.
It was small.
But it was real.
Kentarou blinked, surprised by the tightness in his chest.
And just like that, the chapter ended.
He stared at the last panel.
Let them stay like this, he thought. Let them live quietly, far away from blood and swords.
That was the ending he wanted.
But… as he flipped the page again, something tugged at him.
Dawn broke in the next scene. Tomoe stood in the doorway, fully dressed, her back turned to Kenshin.
She was leaving.
Kentarou's chest tightened.
No…
He had a bad feeling.
"Mizushiro-sensei… don't do this…"
After reading the latest chapter, Kentarou sat in silence, a bit overwhelmed. His eyes moved from the announcement poster for Rurouni Kenshin: Remembrance's nomination in the upcoming manga awards to the color spread of Kenshin and Tomoe on the cover of the current issue.
Even someone like Kentarou—normally the type to just observe from the sidelines—pulled out his phone, found the voting page on the Sora website, and submitted his vote for Remembrance without hesitation.
He'd already read the chapter. But after seeing it again here, he felt compelled to support the series with a paid subscription too, just in time for the voting period set to begin next week.
Not because he was chasing trends.
But because the story moved him.
Whether it won or not didn't matter to him. What did matter was the thought of a story like this being lumped in with forgettable, poorly written series. That, he couldn't accept.
Readers like Kentarou stay quiet not because they're uninterested, but because most stories don't reach them deeply enough. When something finally does… the response is powerful.
And Kentarou wasn't the only one feeling this way. On this day, many others like him—longtime lurkers—surfaced.
This chapter marked the third part of Rurouni Kenshin: Remembrance—and also, the conclusion of Tomoe's arc.
It was the first time Sora placed Remembrance front and center as the cover feature, and Kurokawa had even rushed out a full-color poster insert for the magazine. Bookstores, subway stations, bus stops—anywhere there was space for promotion, you could find Kenshin and Tomoe displayed prominently.
The emotional peak of the story matched the marketing push. Together, they lit a fire among the passive audience.
That same night, Sora stared at the live voting data in disbelief.
"This chapter alone pulled in 68,452 votes."
"That's over 20,000 more than last week's 49,000…"
Haruki blinked. "That many?"
He had complied with Sora's request last week and delivered two extra color pages for the upcoming issue.
And to be honest, he didn't think much of it. Remembrance had already ranked first in popularity two weeks in a row. Regardless of any behind-the-scenes tension or favoritism, no publishing house would ignore its most popular series forever.
So Haruki had expected the cover feature and the extra color page to be used this time.
He had also added a separate color spread that could double as a promotional poster for the awards.
After all, the first phase of voting was based on online subscriptions and reader engagement. Fans in Osaka alone could likely spread the news without much prompting.
Still, Haruki hadn't expected much. The results would come next week, and all he could do was wait.
He didn't realize that just today, the number of supporters had surged by nearly 20,000.
Yes, Remembrance had already been popular without much formal promotion. So Haruki hadn't thought the extra push from Kurokawa would matter much.
But now? Seeing the numbers, he was stunned by how real the impact was.
"…You've broken your own record again," Sora said, letting out a long breath.
She'd said that last week too. Was this going to become a weekly routine?
But honestly?
If it meant this kind of momentum, she wouldn't mind one bit.
This round of promotion had truly worked. It brought in quiet readers who'd previously just observed. Now they were subscribing, voting, talking—and making their voices heard.
With that thought, Sora finally felt at ease.
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-atreon.com/Alioth23 for 50+ advanced chapters)