Morioh, has now been completely transformed into a giant, silent open-air prison. Although nominally it is the new cultural capital, in reality, the only culture here is Kishibe Rohan's manga.
Kishibe Rohan has been promoted from acting Prime Minister to official Prime Minister. He calls this beautiful Town the "New Order Model Zone," but beneath this glamorous name, suffocating terror permeates.
This place was once a tourist destination. Every summer, a large number of tourists from Tokyo would come here, enjoying the beautiful scenery and delicious food, leaving a deep impression.
But now everything has changed. Although it is still a so-called tourist destination, it is more like a "holy land."
Under Kishibe Rohan's promotion, tourists from all over the country come here to learn about and observe the local manga culture, and to be influenced by Kishibe Rohan's ideology.
Along both sides of the street, all shop signs have been forcibly replaced with a unified manga format. The fonts are various wonderful print types, filled with praises for the great Prime Minister Kishibe Rohan.
The names of the shops are squeezed into small corners, and most shops are limited to the most basic necessities of life, such as rationing stations, discipline study centers, and uniform distribution points.
The once colorful exterior walls of residential houses are painted with manga, and even the color and style of curtains are strictly regulated. They must use specified manga content and must be drawn open during the day to be subject to "the scrutiny of sunlight and order."
The most common of these is Kishibe Rohan's manga—pink dark boy. After arriving in this Town, tourists can clearly see the content of the manga from any corner.
"pink dark boy" is no longer entertainment reading here, but is forcibly promoted like a bible. Every household must have at least one copy, and the first class of every day in schools must be reading the latest content of pink dark boy.
—With the supply of manga materials from all over Tokyo, Kishibe Rohan has been able to update daily, and manga periodicals have changed to please him, updating and selling every day.
Huge posters and electronic screens are ubiquitous on the streets, cycle broadcasting "New Order Rules" voiced by manga characters and hymns to the great leader Kishibe Rohan.
Even the most remote houses are either painted with manga or plastered with manga-related posters. Everyone is praising this greatest mangaka in history.
What if they don't accept it?
Then it is a violation of Kishibe Rohan's newly implemented Manga Act, which entails 15 days of detention and forced reading of Kishibe Rohan's manga at the discipline study center.
Until one can recite all the current content of the manga backwards, several stubborn individuals who refused to cooperate have committed suicide by eight gunshots to the back, their bodies hung in the Town center for public display.
The police in the Town have long been brainwashed. They patrol the Town every day, observing every pedestrian, becoming the enforcers of Kishibe Rohan's policies.
Once they find someone with even a slight change in expression, they will immediately greet them with batons. As for the bodies hung in the Town center, they turn a blind eye.
There are even rumors that the bodies were hung up by them, but the person who said this was also hung up the next day. According to radio and newspapers, he also committed suicide.
And the great Prime Minister Kishibe Rohan even gave an interview to characterize this case, stating that the man committed suicide.
Well, first he shot himself eight times in the back, then cut off his own tongue after death, and hung himself and his tongue separately on a tree… The entire Town was enveloped in this white terror.
And Hashimoto Yoma, a man who had just become a magazine model, lived in such a Town.
He is a "sunny and passionate" young man, usually fond of exercise and sports, often spending time at the gym, and proud of the muscles he has built.
But… ever since Kishibe Rohan's policies were implemented, everything he had was ruined.
He lost his job.
Magazines no longer needed him as a model, because all current magazines feature the great Prime Minister Kishibe Rohan, or his great manga, as their covers.
Models have lost their purpose.
He also lost his girlfriend.
His girlfriend, after complaining that a new law was as brutal as fascism, was overheard by a passing policeman and was severely beaten, then taken away for re-education.
His girlfriend returned from education a changed person, stiff and rigid like a machine, and fanatical about manga, treating it as her other half.
So they broke up.
He also lost his hobbies.
Gyms have been abolished, and various fitness equipment has been discontinued. Under Kishibe Rohan's policies, people's leisure activities are limited to reading newspapers, listening to the radio, watching television, and reading manga.
Activities like fitness and bodybuilding have been banned, only allowed for military personnel, because these activities consume a lot of people's energy, preventing them from enjoying the beauty of manga.
Of course, running and some basic movements are exceptions, as Kishibe Rohan cannot dismantle their bodies, but all bodybuilding equipment has been confiscated, and even running methods are specifically regulated.
Therefore, Hashimoto Yoma could only run every day, or do push-ups and other exercises that did not require equipment.
He felt it.
His life was becoming increasingly oppressive. After losing everything, even the remaining joy of exercise was being gradually stripped away.
Kishibe Rohan destroyed everything he had, and this is also a microcosm of the lives of other Town residents in this small Town. They are gradually being domesticated into machines, and resistors will only be hung up or brainwashed.
And this desperate environment is expanding outwards from Morioh as its center, while international media have all closed their mouths, seemingly not noticing this place, with no one speaking out for them.
Those who know, know they are in a modern capitalist country.
Those who don't know might think they are in some dictatorial feudal autocratic country, or a primitive tribe.
But this day, after a frantic run that left him completely exhausted, Hashimoto Yoma saw a policeman.
Hashimoto Yoma's muscles trembled slightly from exhaustion and an inexplicable anger. Sweat soaked his vest, clinging to his chest which rose and fell violently with rapid breathing.
He stopped, hands on his knees, and looked up, sweat dripping from his drenched hair on his forehead.
It was then that he saw the policeman, like a terrifying statue painted with manga colors, with exaggerated makeup on his face, striding menacingly towards him.
The baton swung in the air, making a whooshing sound, pointing at Hashimoto Yoma's head.
"Hey, kid! That's right, you, what are you doing?!"
The middle-aged policeman's shout was sharp and piercing, his face showing the brutality of a fanatic, as if Hashimoto Yoma's actions were a blasphemy against his faith.
Hashimoto Yoma straightened up, a fire burning in his chest. Images of losing his job, his lover, and his hobbies flashed before his eyes.
He stared at the policeman, not immediately lowering his head in submission, nor mechanically reciting lines from "pink dark boy" to defend himself.
He just watched, his eyes filled with unconcealed exhaustion, disgust, a hint of madness on the verge of collapse, and an infinite longing for strong muscles, a fanatical devotion to exercise—this was his last remaining desire.
"I'm exercising, I'm running." Hashimoto Yoma's voice was hoarse, but unusually clear. To the policeman, this was a provocation, like a mouse dancing wildly in front of a cat, almost equivalent to a crime in the current Morioh.
"Running and exercising?! What are you talking about?! Tell me again! You're wasting such precious time not reading manga, but running and exercising here!"
The policeman approached. Beneath the light blue manga-style cap brim, a pair of eyes stared at him like he was some kind of monster, scrutinizing him up and down, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Wait a minute, tell me in detail, what kind of running are you doing? Has it been approved by the 'Sports Behavior Regulation Committee'? Is it the 'Manga Running Method' approved by the Manga Association?
Does your running posture conform to the standard action of the protagonist's sprint in the seventh chapter of the third volume of 'pink dark boy'? Does your breathing rhythm follow the 'Manga Breathing Method' guided by Prime Minister Kishibe in his 'Health and Order' column?"
...The book test is tomorrow morning. Does anyone have any name recommendations?