Once the Hunter × Hunter storyline entered the Phantom Troupe arc in Yorknew City, the manga's weekly sales began changing almost every seven days.
It had only just broken through ten million average volume sales in late February. By mid-to-late March, that figure had already surged to nearly twelve million.
Among currently serialized manga in Japan, its average volume ranking climbed from 17th in early March to 13th.
At its current rate of tankōbon growth, by April Hunter × Hunter will likely surpass thirteen million average volume sales and force its way into the national top ten of ongoing series.
This pace can no longer be described as fast.
It's riding a rocket.
When a manga's average volume sales are below ten million, rapid jumps are understandable.
But the market has a ceiling.
Once a series crosses the ten-million threshold, its growth curve typically flattens. Most titles at that level might add less than a million copies in an entire year, and if the current arc underperforms, numbers can even decline.
So who has ever seen something as outrageous as Hunter adding a full million in barely half a month?
Of course, Japan has never witnessed a bug-level phenomenon like Rei's past-life Demon Slayer.
One Piece needed twenty years to reach its average volume sales peak. Demon Slayer surpassed it in a single year, and by its finale, had doubled that average outright.
Still, Hunter × Hunter is playing a similar catalytic role in today's Japanese market.
Not because Hunter is necessarily superior to every top domestic series, but because its style and narrative structure had never existed in Japan before.
Readers grow tired of cookie-cutter plots, recycled character archetypes, and formulaic escalation. A work that is clearly innovative, like Hunter, naturally grabs attention.
From that perspective, its explosive rise makes sense.
And yet…
As the numbers became eye-catching, bordering on absurd, online smear campaigns targeting Hunter × Hunter and its author, Shirogane, began surfacing one after another.
Anonymous posts accused Shirogane of misconduct in high school, unpaid debts, harassment of women.
Some even claimed he assaulted people or verbally abused the homeless.
Rei and the Hoshimori Group both understood exactly what was happening.
The competition had made its move.
Dream Comic was now locked in a brutal fight with Shonen Quest for Japan's No. 2 weekly circulation spot.
Both hovered around twenty million copies per week, trading wins back and forth.
Meanwhile, Monogatari Comic, comfortably entrenched in first place, was equally wary, especially of Hunter.
Industry veterans know the truth: for a journal like Dream Comic, with global distribution channels, a single breakout title can add several million copies to annual circulation in under a year.
Even Monogatari Comic's seemingly insurmountable multi-million lead could shrink faster than people expect.
The mere presence of Hunter × Hunter was already making rivals uneasy.
And it hadn't even been serialized for a full year.
Give it a few more years, and who could say whether Echoes of the End would still wear the crown as Japan's top manga?
Monogatari Comic wasn't sitting idle, either.
Most of the troll accounts currently smearing Rei online were backed by either Monogatari or Shonen Quest.
After finishing his daily pages, Rei still made time to skim whatever sensational "dirt" had surfaced about him that day.
He treated it all like stand-up comedy.
After laughing it off, Rei took out his tools, inhaled deeply, and began designing supporting-character sheets for arcane.
That alone devoured several more hours.
In the afternoon, Misaki called.
A Western television station planned to simulcast the Hunter × Hunter anime starting in July, and Rei needed to attend the contract signing the next day.
Naturally, he agreed immediately.
Then came several more hours of work.
Only just before bed did Rei finally check the message Miyu had left him.
[My series Touch of Glass ranked 12th in this week's magazine reader poll. The publisher is releasing its first tankōbon in May…]
[Also, they're planning to animate it! Pretty awesome, right?]
"Congratulations," Rei replied with a smile.
[If you really want to congratulate me, buy the tankōbon when Touch of Glass releases, though you're so busy you probably don't even read my series, right?]
"No, I read your manga every single week!" Rei typed back.
After a brief pause, he added another message.
[Let's both keep pushing. Break into the top ten.]
[Top ten? Top ten of what?]
[I'm aiming for top-ten average tankōbon sales with Hunter. You fight for a top-ten popularity spot in Dream Comic.]
After sending the message, Rei glanced out the window at the rainbow neon lights of the city.
Late March.
In One-Punch Man, the anime had reached the arc where Garou assaults the Hero Association, only to be stopped by Genos, who was nearly killed in the brutal clash.
At the critical moment, the Monster Association's Dragon-level Monster, Elder Centipede, appeared.
It effortlessly defeated Genos and ordered its underlings to carry away the human who had volunteered to become a monster, the already gravely injured Garou.
Its arrival left Genos, the S-Class cyborg hero meant to define the combat power ceiling, completely overwhelmed.
From here, the plot of One-Punch Man smoothly transitioned into the early groundwork of the Monster Association arc.
The episode then ended by perfectly echoing and bridging back to the first episode of Season Two.
King, S-Class Rank 7, the so-called Strongest Man on Earth, whose reputation had been hyped since the season premiere, finally arrived at the battlefield where Garou had defeated the heroes.
Just as Elder Centipede emerged, preparing to finish off the unconscious fighters…
King raised the megaphone in his hand and loudly announced himself, deliberately drawing the monster's attention in the name of "King."
Then, at the crucial second, when King was so terrified he nearly wet himself, he shouted for Saitama.
Saitama appeared behind him.
One punch.
Still just one punch.
The supposedly invincible, kilometer-long, laser-resistant Dragon-level Elder Centipede was annihilated on the spot.
And once again, the Hero Association credited the feat to King.
On his very first mission responding to the Hero Association's call, he had slain Elder Centipede, an enemy the official records claimed only S-Class Rank 1 Blast could possibly defeat.
Even Blast had merely driven it away in the past.
King, meanwhile, had killed it.
You could say that the hardest reputation in the world was now firmly set in stone.
And everyone watching burst out laughing.
After the episode aired, the One-Punch Man forums stayed lit all night. Across every major anime platform, King rocketed to the very top of the trending charts with absolute dominance.
As the finale of Season Two, the episode left tens of millions of One-Punch Man fans thoroughly satisfied.
With the upgraded animation quality, even the pickiest viewers couldn't find fault with the battle scenes, every frame screamed money well spent.
Meanwhile, over in the manga market, in the final week of March, Hunter × Hunter's tankōbon sales officially broke the 13-million-per-volume mark.
Many media outlets had predicted the milestone would be reached in April.
It arrived early.
Total cumulative sales still appeared modest, after all, Hunter had released only a few volumes.
But in terms of per-volume performance, it sailed past Shirogane's previous work Hikaru no Go without the slightest resistance, effortlessly surpassing 13 million and storming into the top ten per-volume sales among currently serialized manga.
When the news spread across the media, nearly every manga artist in the country went numb.
A freak like Shirogane, once you learn anything about his life, you don't feel inspired.
You don't feel healed.
You just start wondering whether the two of you are even the same species.
Calling him a "manga genius" suddenly feels understated.
He's more like a deity soaring above the heavens.