Release #1 - Kage no Keishōsha

Volume 1 Synopsis — 影の継承者 (Kage no Keishōsha) “Awakening of the Shadow” Tokyo never truly sleeps. Beneath its neon lights and crowded streets, something ancient is beginning to wake. Kirishima Yato is a lonely seventeen-year-old student who drifts through life unnoticed. He spends his nights wandering rain-soaked streets, sketching strange shadow creatures inside his worn notebook. Ever since his parents died in a mysterious train accident eight years ago, Yato has felt disconnected from the world around him — as if he exists outside of it. Everything changes when a violent Shadow Rift suddenly opens beneath Shibuya Crossing. Dragged into the darkness, Yato encounters Kuroe — a legendary Onmyōji samurai from five hundred years ago whose soul has been sealed inside Yato’s own shadow. Forced to share one life, the two become unwilling partners as monstrous Yokai begin invading Tokyo through spreading rifts fueled by humanity’s fear, loneliness, and despair. Soon, Yato is taken to the hidden Kage Onmyō Academy, where students train to fight the growing darkness. But while others awaken elegant powers and prestigious bloodline abilities, Yato’s strange “Shadow Canvas” ability is feared by both students and teachers alike. His drawings can become living shadow creatures — powers connected to emotions, trauma, and something far more dangerous hidden inside him. As rivalries form and brutal battles erupt across Tokyo’s shadow districts, Yato learns a terrifying truth: the darkness inside him is tied to the return of Yami no Mikado, the ancient Shadow God once sealed during the Great Shadow War.

Kurotsuki Studio