I just want to quietly draw manga Chapter 356(2in1)

[Note: This chapter ended up around 1.5k words. Today was a roller coaster while editing. It started at 1k, then went up to 1.9k, then 2.2k, which felt too long, so I cut it back down to around 1.4–1.5k. I wasn’t aiming for a specific word count; it just settled naturally at this length.

Also, about the recent chapters overall, I’ve shifted my focus more toward scene-by-scene pacing instead of fast progression. It’s a slower style, but not overly slow, and it leans more into slice-of-life mixed with industry/showbiz elements. I’m curious what you guys think of this direction.]

October 25, Tuesday

After dinner, Ken came back up to his room and sat at his desk. His laptop was already open. He pulled up the streaming site and checked his phone, the group chat was Popping up with new messages.

Kenji: "Episode 4 drops today. Good luck, Ken."

Yuki: "He's not ready."

Mika: "Nobody's ready for this one."

Kenji: "RIP Ken's mental health."

Seeing these messages, he hovered his cursor over the latest Fullmetal episode. "How bad can it be?" he muttered, clicking on Episode 4. "I survived Euphemia. This cannot be worse."

Euphemia's scene was still fresh in his mind. He had forced himself to watch the whole thing while half his friends had skipped it. If he could handle that, he could handle anything Muzishiro threw at him.

He clicked play.

The episode opened with Edward and Alphonse traveling to visit an old colleague, Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist. A man who had created a talking chimera years ago.

"Pretty normal so far," Ken muttered, leaning back. "Slice of life, even."

Tucker's daughter, Nina, appeared on screen. Maybe four or five years old, playing with a large white dog. She was bright and innocent, calling Edward "Big Brother" with a gap-toothed smile.

Ken relaxed slightly. This was fine. Just character building. His friends had been messing with him again.

The story continued. Days passed on screen. Nina played with her dog. Tucker grew more desperate, his State Alchemist certification was up for review, and he had not produced results in years.

Then Edward and Alphonse returned to Tucker's house after a few days away.

Tucker's voice, strained. "I did it. I created another talking chimera."

Ken sat up slightly.

The camera panned slowly across the lab. In the corner, in the shadows, something moved.

A creature. Edward stepped closer.

The creature turned its head and muttered a word. "Ed...ward..."

Edward's eyes widened in horror.

Ken's brain caught up half a second later.

No.

No, he did not...

"Big... brother..."

Ken slammed the pause button so hard his laptop shifted on the desk.

"WHAT THE..." His voice cracked. "WHAT. What the FUCK. Who even... what..."

He stood up, hands in his hair, pacing the small space between his bed and desk.

"No. No, that is, he did not, the dog and..."

His thoughts could not form properly. The image was burned into his vision even with the screen paused.

He had fused them. Tucker had fused his own daughter with her dog to create a chimera.

"Oh my god. Oh my GOD."

He yelled it louder than he meant to.

Footsteps in the hallway. Then a sharp knock on his door.

"Ken." His mother's voice, already annoyed. "How many times do I have to tell you, if you cannot handle watching something, then do not watch it."

The door opened before he could answer. She stood in the doorway, dish towel slung over her shoulder.

"You messed up your last test because you stayed up watching Code Geass," she continued. "If tomorrow is a repeat, I am banning anime for a full month."

Ken said, hearing the threat, "Mom. Mom, this is different. This is, everyone online is losing their minds over this. If you saw what just happened..."

She crossed her arms. "Show me."

"What?"

"Show me what is so horrifying."

Ken hesitated, then turned his laptop toward her. He dragged the timeline back thirty seconds and pressed play.

His mother watched silently. The reveal played out again, the chimera turning, speaking, Edward's horror.

Five seconds passed.

She shrugged.

"The dog fused with the little girl." Her tone was the same as if she had commented on the weather. "That is unfortunate."

Ken stared at her. "Unfortunate? MOM. This is, this is horrifying. A father turned his own daughter into a monster. Normal people react to this."

"Your father and I watch horror movies all the time," she said, completely unbothered. "We saw Martyrs last weekend. And A Serbian Film the month before. This does not even register."

"Yeah, because you two are weird. You like that stuff." Ken gestured at the screen. "I am a normal person. Normal people have emotional reactions."

His mother gave him a long look. "You get scared during ghost movies. Last month you had nightmares from a thriller."

"That is because I am normal."

"Then how are you going to get a girlfriend if you are scared of everything?"

"Times have changed, Mom. Girls do not care if guys are..."

"Then why do you not have a girlfriend yet?"

Ken opened his mouth. Closed it. Sighed.

"I am busy. I study all day. You know that."

She stepped back into the hallway. "Here is the deal. If you score five marks lower than usual on tomorrow's test, I will not cut your anime time. But if it is lower than that, it is banned for a month. You need to toughen up."

"That is not fair..."

"Life is not fair, Ken." She walked away, already heading back downstairs.

He sat down slowly, completely drained.

Downstairs, Ken's father, Makoto, looked up from his phone. "What was he screaming about this time?"

Akiko walked back into the living room, tossing the dish towel onto the kitchen counter. "Anime. Some girl got fused with her dog by her father. Tragic music, dramatic close-ups. Standard stuff."

Makoto set his phone down. "That is it?"

"Apparently." She sat beside him on the couch. "So what are we watching tonight?"

He picked up the remote, scrolling through their saved list. "Come and See. 1985 Russian war film. People say it is one of the most disturbing movies ever made."

Akiko raised an eyebrow. "Good. Hopefully it is not disappointing like Oldboy was."

"Oldboy was solid," Makoto said, clicking play on the movie. "But nowhere near as dark as people online made it sound. Everyone oversells everything now."

The movie started playing, bleak, gray, the sound of distant artillery.

Upstairs, Ken's muffled voice could be heard through the ceiling, still muttering to himself.

Makoto glanced up. "Think he is okay?"

"He will be fine," Akiko said. "He just needs to build thicker skin."

Online

The reactions were nothing like Ken's parents. Anime-only fans were in full meltdown mode.

"MUZISHIRO WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU"

"First Euphemia, now THIS. I am done. I am actually quitting Muzishiro's anime."

"My manga reader friends were SMILING when I said I was starting Fullmetal today. They KNEW. They knew and did not warn me."

"Someone please just spoil the entire series for me. I cannot handle another scene like this without warning."

"I am sitting in my room staring at the wall. I cannot process this. Why would he write this."

The manga readers jumped in too.

"Oh, this brought back memories of how we reacted."

"I knew it was coming. I read the manga. But I still could not watch the scene. I skipped the rest of the episode."

"That is what the Cliffhangers see from above, I get it. It is fun to see them losing their minds."

"But those guys are not human. They enjoy people's suffering. I feel sympathy for the first-time watchers. Those guys do not have any, and I am telling you, they were waiting to troll the same way they did to us."

Then a Cliffhanger posted a clip from the signing event, just the part where a fan asked Muzishiro why he writes these types of scenes, and he had replied with, "It is a stylistic choice. I do not have a better explanation. Let's go with that."

The comment section exploded.

"NO WAY he actually said that with a straight face."

"We have to do something. He cannot keep getting away with this."

"Muzishiro is unhinged. We need to stop him before he kills more dogs."

As the reactions kept growing, more people finished the episode and joined the chaos.

It had been an hour since Ken finished watching the anime.

Upstairs in his room, Ken sat at his desk in the dark, the only light coming from his laptop screen.

His phone kept buzzing on the desk.

Class Group Chat

Kenji: "Did you finish it yet"

Yuki: "He has been quiet for an hour. He definitely watched it."

Mika: "Ken, you good"

Kenji: "He is not good. Nobody is good after Episode 4."

Yuki: "Welcome to hell, Ken."

Ken picked up his phone, typed a response, deleted it, then finally just sent:

Ken: "I hate all of you."

Three laughing emojis came back instantly.

His cursor hovered over the play button. Downstairs, he could hear the faint sound of his parents' movie, screaming, gunfire, something exploding.

Ken stared at the screen for another long moment.

Then he closed the laptop.

Not tonight.

Maybe not tomorrow either.