Bleeding Shadows ( Ashes)

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**Page 1:**

**Panel 1 (Full page spread):** The Hollow Market—a labyrinth of cobblestone streets suspended in a void, lit by floating lanterns shaped like weeping faces. Stalls sell grotesque wares: bottled screams, eyeballs on strings, and shivering shadows in cages. In the foreground, Jin and Yuri walk past a vendor skewering glowing worms onto a hook. **Caption**: *"Welcome to where the desperate trade pieces of their soul."*

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**Page 2:**

**Panel 1:** Close-up of Jin's hand—two fingers are now ash-gray, cracks spiderwebbing up his wrist. He clenches his fist, hiding it in his pocket.

**Panel 2:** Yuri smirks, gesturing to a stall where a hunched figure stitches a ghost's mouth shut with black thread. **Yuri**: *"Need a new tongue? Yours seems…* **heavy.***"

**Panel 3:** Jin glares. *"Why are we here?"*

**Panel 4:** Yuri's blue eye glints. *"To pay your debt. You owe me a Shade."*

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**Page 3:**

**Panel 1:** Flashback: Yuri's hand shoving the vial into Jin's mouth in the cemetery. **Yuri (voiceover)**: *"Rot slows, but debts compound."*

**Panel 2:** Present. Jin grabs Yuri's arm. *"I didn't ask for your help!"*

**Panel 3:** Yuri's milky eye swirls—Jin's grip loosens as pain lances through his rotting hand. **Yuri**: *"You think death is your only curse? Naive.* **This** *is your curse."*

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**Page 4:**

**Panel 1:** A skeletal vendor with a mirror for a face beckons them. **Mirror Vendor**: *"Ah, Yuri… brought fresh meat?"*

**Panel 2:** The vendor's mirror reflects Jin as a corpse, organs replaced with writhing shadows. **Jin**: *"What the hell—?!"*

**Panel 3:** Yuri tosses the vendor a coin made of bone. *"We're here for the Surgeon."*

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**Page 5:**

**Panel 1:** They stop at a tent stitched from human skin. A sign reads: *"Memories Extracted. Pain Remastered."*

**Panel 2:** Inside, the **Ghost Surgeon**—a translucent figure with scalpels for fingers—hums as he carves a spectral heart. **Surgeon**: *"Yuri. Here to pawn another regret?"*

**Panel 3:** Yuri shoves Jin forward. *"He needs answers. About the harvest."*

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**Page 6:**

**Panel 1:** The Surgeon leans in, scalpels clicking. *"Harvest Shades feed on agony. The more trauma, the sweeter the soul. Your little graveyard friend… her death was a* **banquet.***"

**Panel 2:** Jin's blackened veins throb. *"Who's behind it?"*

**Panel 3:** The Surgeon licks Jin's decaying finger. *"A memory for a memory. Let me taste your* **mother's** *final moments."*

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**Page 7:**

**Panel 1:** Flashback: Young Jin sobbing as his reanimated mother's Shade—a monstrous, weeping shadow—devours the hospital staff. **Jin's Mother (distorted)**: *"Why won't you let me die?!"*

**Panel 2:** Present. The Surgeon moans, savoring the memory. *"Delicious despair… The harvesters work for the* **Eclipse Society.** *Find their broker here tonight."*

**Panel 3:** Jin collapses, his left ear crumbling to ash. **Yuri**: *"Tick-tock, grave boy."*

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**Page 8:**

**Panel 1:** Yuri drags Jin to a crowded auction stage. A masked auctioneer holds up a jar containing a screaming Shade. **Auctioneer**: *"Rare specimen! Drowned in her own grief!"*

**Panel 2:** Jin's eyes widen—the Shade resembles Min-ah.

**Panel 3:** A bidder in a feathered mask raises a hand. **Bidder**: *"Three years of silence."*

**Panel 4:** Jin lunges, shouting: *"That's* **her** *Shade!"*

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**Page 9:**

**Panel 1:** The crowd freezes. The bidder's mask cracks, revealing a face with no mouth—only eyes.

**Panel 2:** The bidder's hands morph into shadow blades. **Harvester**: *"You shouldn't be here, necromancer."*

**Panel 3:** Yuri sighs, cracking her knuckles. *"And* **you** *shouldn't have left witnesses."*

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**Page 10:**

**Panel 1 (Full-page action spread):** Chaos erupts. Yuri's blue eye blazes as she tears through Harvesters with spectral chains. Jin, half-crumbling, resurrects a nearby corpse—a hulking undead guard—but its Shade immediately bursts free, attacking both sides.

**Sound Effects**: *SHINK!* (chains) / *SKREEE!* (Shade) / *CRACK!* (Jin's ribs fracturing).

**Cliffhanger Textbox**: *"In the Hollow Market, even salvation comes with teeth."*

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**Hook for Chapter 3:**

- **Jin's Sacrifice**: Using his power again accelerates the Rot—his jaw begins to disintegrate.

- **Yuri's Secret**: Her blue eye is a stolen Shade, bound to her for unknown reasons.

- **The Eclipse Society**: Their broker escapes, but not before snarling: *"Your mother's Shade hungers for you, boy."*

**Tone**: Unrelenting tension. Jin's body is a time bomb, and every choice forces him to trade humanity for survival. The Hollow Market's horrors escalate, making readers fear what he'll lose next—and what he'll become.