Yuuto Kageyama

(My photo. BS: A thriving artist who’s obsessed with Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer) “The Artist Bleeds” The clicking of the clock was drowned out by the scratch of ink across paper. In his cramped Tokyo apartment, Yuuto Kageyama hunched over his drafting table, sleeves rolled up, eyes wide with manic focus. His latest panel showed a handsome man smiling as he offered a drink—next panel, the same smile as his date’s lifeless body slumped in the background. Stacks of true crime books lined the wall, pages yellowed and dog-eared—Bundy’s charm dissected, Dahmer’s rituals annotated in red. Above his desk, taped neatly like trophies, were their mugshots. Ted. Jeff. His muses. “They were misunderstood,” Yuuto whispered, dipping his pen back in ink that seemed too thick, too dark. “They just wanted someone to listen.” His manga, “Crimson Confessions,” had exploded in popularity. Readers praised its disturbing realism. Critics called it “the work of a disturbed genius.” Fans begged to know how he captured killers so perfectly. Yuuto just smiled. Behind him, the closet door was slightly ajar. Inside, neatly pressed clothes hung beside a row of sealed evidence bags—bracelets, a scarf, a cracked phone—all marked with dates. All trophies. He glanced at his newest script. Victim #12: Inspired by real events. Yuuto chuckled softly, pen moving faster now. “They think it’s fiction,” he murmured. “But it’s confession in disguise.”