After the twelfth episode of Rurouni Kenshin was published, the manga world was buzzing with speculation.
Readers were in disbelief. Letters flooded into Kurokawa Publishing, all pleading for the series not to end.
Everyone could see it—Remembrance had a meticulously crafted world, steeped in historical detail that resonated deeply with the era it portrayed. There was clearly room for the story to continue.
But in the industry, confusion reigned.
"Is Mizushiro-sensei out of his mind?"
That was the general sentiment.
With a series like this—wildly successful, critically acclaimed, and pulling in tens of thousands of yen in royalties every month—why would anyone choose to end it at just fifteen chapters?
Even setting aside the steady income from serialization, the compiled volumes were guaranteed to sell. Not to mention, with how well it was performing in the Aurora Manga Awards, there was a very real chance that a production company might approach them for anime, film, or even game adaptation rights.
If things progressed that way, the revenue wouldn't just be in the thousands per month. It could easily hit the millions annually.
So to choose to end Rurouni Kenshin while it was at its absolute peak?
It felt insane.
That day, manga artists from all the major companies were discussing it during meetings and hangouts.
Some openly laughed, suggesting Mizushiro-sensei had run out of ideas. That maybe he was too young, too idealistic. Perhaps he had just hit his peak early and didn't know how to follow it up.
But by nightfall, the tone shifted dramatically.
It started with a single blog post that went viral—an in-depth analysis of the supposed ending.
One line stood out, stopping readers in their tracks:
"Remembrance may be ending... but is Rurouni Kenshin truly over?"
At first, it read like a riddle.
But then the realization hit.
Rurouni Kenshin: Remembrance. The Remembrance arc.
Wait... arc?
Fans across the internet jolted awake, as if struck by lightning.
Mizushiro-sensei… that sly bastard. And Kurokawa Publishing—masters of misdirection!
Why name a series with the word "Remembrance" in the title unless it was only one part of something bigger?
No one had thought about it before. But suddenly, the puzzle pieces clicked into place.
Remembrance... was just the beginning.
A new arc had to be coming.
The mood online flipped entirely. The panic over the ending transformed into anticipation. The hope that Remembrance was ending was now replaced by a fervent desire for what came next.
But... was that really true?
That night, Haruki and Kotone were still holed up in the apartment, refining the final touches on episodes fourteen and fifteen.
"So this is what people are saying online now?" Haruki looked over at Sora , who'd just returned from a check-in at the office.
"They think a new arc's coming after Remembrance?"
"Not just the internet," Sora sighed. "Even inside Kurokawa, that's the assumption."
"When you first pitched this, the outline only had a dozen or so chapters. I reported that to the editors early on," she continued. "But the series blew up way faster than anyone predicted. So after a while, people at Kurokawa started asking me whether Rurouni Kenshin would go beyond Remembrance."
"You remember what you told me back then?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
Haruki gave a sheepish shrug. "I said yes… but only after I finished developing the full story."
"Exactly. But I guess the higher-ups at Kurokawa conveniently ignored that second part. In their minds, every successful series evolves as it's serialized. Who waits until they've plotted everything?"
She leaned back against the table, exasperated.
"That's why no one's bothering you right now about the ending. They all think you're just closing the Remembrance arc and preparing for the next one."
"But the thing is..." Haruki muttered, frowning. "I'm not continuing it. I haven't planned any other arcs. There's no continuation."
To be precise, it wasn't that Haruki didn't want to continue. He couldn't.
He had used his system points to exchange for Rurouni Kenshin, but only the Remembrance arc was included. The odds of drawing a full A-rank version of the complete story were virtually zero.
If he had the entire story, he'd gladly serialize the main series—but that simply wasn't an option.
Sora exhaled. "Yeah... I didn't report that part to Kurokawa."
"I just pretended not to know. After all, I never said you would continue it. The editors and the readers filled in the blanks themselves."
She smirked.
"And once people get it in their heads that a new arc is coming, it becomes almost impossible to convince them otherwise. If we hadn't let the misunderstanding happen, Kurokawa would've sent a whole team to your door days ago. They'd beg, threaten, or pressure you to keep going—force a hundred chapters out of it, even if it turned into filler."
Haruki winced at the thought.
That… would've been a nightmare.
"But what happens if things don't go the way they're expecting?" he asked.
"What if Remembrance ends and that's it—there's no next arc?"
Sora gave a crooked smile.
"Oh, simple. Total meltdown."
"But honestly? That's still better than Kurokawa trying to bleed the series dry. If you want to walk away clean, you'll need to let them find out after it's over."
She knew Haruki too well by now. Once he made a decision, he stuck with it.
So while the higher-ups at Kurokawa were still lost in their own assumptions, she'd chosen not to correct them. It was easier to play dumb and keep things moving.
"Of course, if by some miracle you did start a new arc," she added, half-joking, "everything would be perfect."
Haruki opened his mouth to answer—but paused.
He couldn't say "I have no way to do that." It'd come off too final. Too hopeless.
So instead, the conversation drifted off into silence.
---
1:01 a.m., Saturday.
On the official website of the Aurora Manga Award, a new chapter of Rurouni Kenshin had just dropped.
It was the twelfth installment—and fans were ready.
Despite maintaining its flawless 9.8 rating, the series had surged from 170,000 followers the previous Friday to over 350,000 now. That placed it temporarily at seventh place in the overall rankings.
Of course, nearly every entry in the competition had seen a rise in followers by this point. For instance, Blazing Feather—the frontrunner—had climbed from 400,000 to over 700,000 fans in just a week.
But that night, something peculiar happened.
All across the site, users started noticing pages freezing or loading unusually slow. For anyone browsing, it was obvious: something massive was pulling traffic.
If you worked backstage at the Award's operations team, you'd have seen it clearly in the backend data. Of all the series being tracked, an overwhelming chunk of web traffic—nearly 80% of all Remembrance followers—were reading the chapter within the first 24 hours of release.
Even more staggering: 35% were reading it right now, in the middle of the night.
For comparison, Blazing Feather had a respectable 50% 24-hour read rate, but only 15% of fans logged on at midnight to catch the update.
Sure, 9.8 and 8.8 might seem like just a one-point difference on paper—but the engagement metrics told a much more dramatic story.
With over 300,000 fans, it wasn't far-fetched to say that more than 100,000 readers were online simultaneously, eagerly refreshing their browsers for the newest installment.
And what a chapter it was.
Kenshin, blinded temporarily in one eye and bleeding from both ears, dragged himself through a snow-laden mountain, caught in a fierce battle. Exhausted and dazed, hallucinations blurred his senses.
But in his mind, what he clung to was the promise he'd once made to Tomoe—to live quietly together in the mountain town of Otsu.
In a moment of desperation, Kenshin cried out:
"Let's go together… to Otsu!"
The clarity of the memory jolted him back from the edge, but when his vision returned, there was nothing—just a whirlwind of snow.
That panel struck fans hard.
"Mizushiro-sensei is just cruel with this story arc... Why go this far just to torment us?"
"I'm in tears. Kenshin's been carrying the weight of killing Tomoe's fiancé all this time. He let himself get ambushed while protecting her. Even now, half-dead, he still climbs that mountain to save her."
"It's brutal… and beautiful."
Then they turned the page.
A full-color spread appeared—Kenshin and Tomoe standing in the snow. At the top, bold letters:
"Chapters 14 and 15—Finale—To be released together in two weeks!"
"Wait... WHAT!?"
"It's over?! That's it?!"
"No way… don't play with us like this!"
A wave of confusion swept across the comments section. But fans from Osaka quickly jumped in to explain—Remembrance was concluding, but the next arc was right around the corner.
Even so, speculation ran rampant. Nowhere had Mizushiro-sensei officially announced a sequel, yet fans clung to the belief that it had to be coming.
Elsewhere, in a quiet apartment, veteran manga artist Renji stared at the latest chapter and then at his editor.
"How bad is it?"
His editor hesitated. "It's strong... but I don't think it'll overtake you in the first round."
Renji was the creator of Blazing Feather, current leader of the Aurora Manga Award with a commanding fanbase.
He didn't see War Soul or Sea's Edge—ranked second and third—as real threats. But Rurouni Kenshin was a different story.
At first, he'd scoffed at it. But now… he was paying attention.
The editor continued, "At this pace, I'd say it'll end the round around fourth or fifth. It just doesn't have the platform exposure or marketing reach yet. Even if word of mouth is strong, that can only go so far. Blazing Feather is still safe."
renji exhaled slowly. "I hope so."
He wasn't blind to the truth. Even if his own work had broader appeal, Remembrance had emotional weight—something that left a lasting impression.
And yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was... off.
That double-episode finale? Scheduled just two days before the first round of judging ended.
Was it timed intentionally?
He went to bed still wondering.
A week passed. Friday arrived again.
A new issue of sora hit shelves across the country.
These days, whenever a new chapter of Rurouni Kenshin dropped, long lines would form outside bookstores. Posters featuring Kenshin and Tomoe now adorned the walls. The promotional support for the series had gone from nonexistent to unavoidable.
For Haruki, life had slowed down a little. The final two chapters were already submitted last week to editor Sora , and Rurouni Kenshin was entering its conclusion.
With the project on temporary hiatus, Haruki, Kotone, and Sora hadn't seen each other in over a week.
Final semester of high school had started again. The pressure was real—but after months juggling deadlines, Haruki found that returning to school life felt strangely peaceful.
But while Haruki enjoyed the calm, the manga industry buzzed with chaos.
Readers eagerly picked up their new copies of sora, flipped open their drinks, and settled in.
And then came Chapter 13.
In a harrowing scene, Tomoe threw herself between Kenshin and an enemy's blade to protect him. Kenshin, still half-blind and confused, mistakenly struck Tomoe in the back in the midst of his counterattack.
Silence.
The fandom reeled.
If the collective consciousness of Rurouni Kenshin fans could be made visible, it would've looked like a sea of blinking question marks.
What the hell was Mizushiro-sensei doing?
Did he know how dangerous a move this was?
He was playing with fire—and every single reader could feel the heat.
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