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[WOLFBOY] "Mhmm. Oh! Did you see the new craze?"
'New craze?' I asked before taking a bite of my pretzel.
[WOLFBOY] "Yeah, it's this!"
Wolfboy reached down behind the table I could see. He picked up and showed me a book in its first volume. A comic? No, a "manga". That backwards comic thing that Catastrovania likes so much. It was.... illustrated, written and "published" by her?! Since when did she become an artist?
[WOLFBOY] "The copies have been going around the Bunker! There's a ton of them! It's super cool! Hehe! I even heard that Hale guy talk about selling them himself to make more money for our cause! Check it out!"
I grabbed the manga.
"Super Dark Valkyrie" it says. Huuh? Alright, there's a synopsis in the first page.
[MAJORDOMO] "That's the TL notes and author after-word. You opened the book the wrong way."
Oh.
Hmm. "In the ancient land of HURST, join our brave loner heroine AYANE C'IEFUL MASTORIA THE THIRD, beloved by all she meets, as she embarks on a quest to find where she belongs in the world after getting exiled from her homeland wrongfully by the KAMI, with enemies lurking around every corner to face with her awesome and amazing ability to CUT ANYTHING. She is... THE DARK VALKYRIE."
...
[MAJORDOMO] "Did she just base this loosely on herself?"
[JOCO] "Dear god, she's self-inserting!"
So this was the talk of the Bunker, then. Maybe I'm out of touch, but I couldn't really get into something like this. Maybe it's because I basically already live this kind of storytelling. Or maybe I'm not sure yet what kind of media I really like...
[WOLFBOY] "Huheh! It's fun! You should give it a try, Muna!"
'Ehh, I'm not sure I'd get into something like this.'
[WOLFBOY] "But look at how well drawn it is! And look at the characters! This one's my favorite-" He flipped the pages; "Ghalma Stonehand!"
Wolfboy showed me a character on one of the pages. She was some kind of eight foot tall, very muscular woman only wearing greaves and gauntlets and nothing else over a bikini.
'Ah.'
I looked over to my left, down to the first floor of the canteen.
I saw many of the Psyops personnel sitting down to have breakfast reading the manga. I saw everyone from soldiers to scientists all having a buzz about it.
'Does Shennu know you're reading something like this?'
Wolfboy blinked at me through munching on a fat chunk of steak.
[WOLFBOY] "Whhdymeen? Ihm- glkp! Why would mom need to know?"
'Well, it uh, it does say it's rated eighteen and above.'
He tilted his head at me.
[WOLFBOY] "I'm over one hundred years old!"
