You Look Like You’re Drawing Me

It’s been a week since the black shirt character made an appearance. 

During this period, Ji Qiu added two more chapters. Yuan Yuan Yuan had been closely following the manga developments; she wanted to figure out what’s the situation with the demon slayer that tailed her and entered the city earlier. 

Honestly speaking, she had been hoping that the demon slayer would quickly make his leave from the city; his presence , now made known to her, was making her incredibly uncomfortable. 

After all, the guy’s still a demon slayer. If she guessed correctly, he should be a Taoist priest. No matter which demon was in question, if you have a person like this tailing you, it’ll definitely send ’em chills down your back. 

Not only so, there was another mysterious Ji Qiu behind this Taoist priest. And the fact that the demon slayer Taoist priest was the main character of this manga didn’t help either. Given the manga setting, she inferred that if she minimised contact with this Taoist priest, the chances of her appearing in the manga itself would also decrease accordingly. 

In the past few days, Yuan Yuan Yuan had been praying to the Buddha, praying to the Guanyin Goddess of Mercy, she’s literally this close to packing her bags and trudging off to the temple she’d always found doubtful that’s tucked far away in the suburbs to seek for divine advice…

Despite her attempts and prayers, things didn’t turn out exactly in her favour. After she read the latest two chapters, she felt like burying her face for reason. 

After the demon slayer saw the demon that’d been sucked dry, he didn’t leave the city immediately. Instead, he found himself another reason to stay and settled down here. 

As a demon slayer, staying in the city was actually really dangerous for him. But given the state of this chaotic city, there were all kinds of demon hidden in the crooks and crannies. As long as you‘re strong enough, you can do whatever the hell you wanted, however you wanted it. That demon slayer could even organise an entire gang of other demon slayers to enter for all she cared — so long they could make it out of this city in the same state they came in that was. 

Even though the demon slayer was still a noob, it’s only been one month since this manga started. The main characters in a conventional shounen manga would generally develop and power up through the manga; even Naruto didn’t become the Village Head* in one night.

* Naruto reference: Village Head is the highest-ranking, and usually the most powerful shinobi (ninja), of their respective village

This demon slayer was still quite a newbie now, his current level was akin to when Naruto first met his friends; he was still quite a distance away from becoming powerful. Of course as the main character, there must be something different about this demon slayer, and that was — his ability to hide his scent as a demon slayer. 

That’s right, you read it right, not only could he camouflage himself and fake his way out as a human being, he could also fake a demon scent and pretend to be a demon, that’s how OP his ability was. He was born to be a spy — armed with such an ability, he could blend right in with the bunch of demons in the city. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan really wanted good cover her face when she read this part. This was just the beginning… thing’s gonna get crazy from here onwards. 

She managed to discover something was off about this manga, but there might be other people who would have figured things out before her. The fact that this manga artist was literally depicting the very things that were open secrets among demons, and the realities unbeknownst to humans — that in itself was already quite a feat she must admit, the artist really had quite some guts…

But now, she was at Ji Qiu’s mercy, what if he got too excited one day and decided to draw out her secret — that she had the ability to hide her demon scent? 

She wondered if the Taoist priest was actually following the manga like she was, and if he felt like he wanted to whack someone after reading it? Because the only thing going on in her head right now was a capitalised and bolded WTF.  The only thing that was slightly comforting — if at all — was the fact that she was just a lowly cannon fodder, while he’s the main character. He couldn’t even escape this if he wanted to. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan had quite a pessimistic opinion of her cameo in the manga. From her observation and research though, nothing seemed amiss, no one had noticed anything yet. After all, only someone in her circumstance, in other words someone directly involved in the manga literally, would be able to realise what was actually going on. The majority of the humans and demons wouldn’t know there was more to the manga than fiction. 

As for demons… Yuan Yuan Yuan had mentioned before that demons were quite an uninteresting bunch, and were very far away from the fantastical manners like how they’re portrayed in literature. The majority of the demons she knew or saw were quite rigid-minded. Yuan Yuan Yuan figured that a big part of them didn’t even know what manga was, much less read it.

This manga had only recently started. On top of that, there was quite a large divide between the the happenings in the human realm and the happenings in the demon realm, so people were probably not gonna realise something was off too anytime soon. Even if someone did notice something, Yuan Yuan Yuan felt that they wouldn’t go around telling other people about it…

Why?

Yuan Yuan Yuan tapped open the comments section and scrolled through. The top three comments had over a thousand likes, and it’s only been a week — evidently there was quite a huge reader base. ♢ YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE DRAWING ME, CHAPTER 09 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM ♢

【I think that the reason the author made Ol’Ning* stay in the city was because Ol’Ning is gonna start his OP demon slaying journey, I mean think about it, in a chaotic city, the death of one demon ain’t gonna catch nobody’s attention. Not only that, remember the main character’s (MC) ace? This “chaotic city” is literally the perfect place to launch a bloodbath. I think this place is gonna become one of the MC’s main stage, who knows, maybe he might even pick up a demon girl or two…

* Ol’Ning: (endearing term) referring to Fa Ning

Since I’m already tryna forecast ahead, I’m just gonna go all out yeah — the black shirt demon from two chapters ago is probably a very important supporting male character. Judging from his attitude towards humans, he’s probably a good demon, and he might just happen to end up giving the MC some timely assists, and then cue some ambiguous scenes get the fujoshi’s* attention…】

* 腐女 fujoshi: reclaimed Japanese term for female fans of manga, anime and novels that feature romantic relationships between men

【This city looks very big, but why does it look like the place that I stay in? Did Ji Qiu use CC as reference?】   

【I really really really think that black shirt demon is gonna die tragically. This manga has been updating for a month, and from the looks of things, there’s a lot of tension between demons and humans, and traitors usually don’t get a happy ending, even if he is a super hot traitor; think Itachi*, and Snape**… Ahhhhhh, the more I think about this the more I’m reminded of Lady Ran! Ji Qiu return me Lady Ran! What a beautiful girl she was, how can you end her so tragically!! 】

* Naruto reference: referring to Uchiha Itachi

** Harry Potter reference: referring to Professor Severus Snape

After reading the top three comments, Yuan Yuan Yuan gave a long sigh.

And this was exactly why the readers won’t reveal anything if they really did notice something…

Everyone would want to have their own privacy, but this manga was here to throw everyone related into the limelight.

There was no where to run or hide.

If her identity as a “traitor” were to be revealed, before the other demons even came to hunt her down, the demon head in charge of this area would finish her off first. 

Like she’d mentioned before, demons were all… very cruel. 

So the majority of them would make sure to find a way to hide themselves properly, and keep their identity as the manga character under wraps. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan promised herself mentally that it won’t happen again, she won’t ever reveal herself; that night was a stupid and careless night, and she wasn’t gonna have anymore idiot moments like that. That identity will never see the light ever again. 

The black shirt character would evaporate from the manga world, and he would never reappear before the readers. 

She read the manga again. There was a very interesting scene in the latest chapter. Under the dark night, the demon slayer called Fa Ning stood before his window as he watched the endless clouds engulfing the night sky, and the countless lights dotting the blanket of cloud. 

The cloud was made up of countless demons. Among those hidden behind the clouds, Yuan Yuan Yuan had no idea how many of them were cruel, merciless, or bloodthirsty, and how many of them were elegant, or mysterious. The demons marched on with the collective as they engaged in their ancient tradition…

The clouded sky in the manga was exactly the Demon Night Parade that Yuan Yuan Yuan saw a few nights ago. Who knows, she might have shared the same sentiments as the Taoist priest that night, beneath the same piece of the night sky.