There was always a dash of craziness when it came to the works of Tatsuki Fujimoto, namely Chainsaw Man, Fire Punch, and so on. So it goes without saying that there must be atleast a few incidents in his life that were a little bizarre.

He shares one such incident in the author comment section of his second oneshot collection.

The incident was from a time when he was young, broke and living with his girlfriend. Although they didn’t earn much they had a pet rice fish, which was found dead one summer. And so he decided to toss the fish into the trash.

His girlfriend, on the other hand, wanted to give it a proper burial. In order to fulfill this he went to a park alone and tried to burry the fish under a big tree.

However, the ground was too hard for him to dig. His hands were all soiled with no results whatsoever. So he decided to pretend that he buried it and left it out there.

Here is where things get crazy, he found ants carrying the dead fish while he was watching. And this was the turning moment where he was overcome with love for the fish for the first time ever, leading him to brush away the ants and eat the fish without a second thought.

“Even though we were poor, we had a pet Japanese rice fish. I found it dead one summer. I went to toss its body into the trash like in Parasyte, but my girlfriend said she wanted me to bury it, so off I went to the park, alone. I tried to bury it under this big tree, but the ground was too hard, my hands got all dirty, and I had no hole to show for my effort. Out of options, I figured I would pretend I had buried the fish and left it lying there on top of the ground. As I watched it for a while, ants found the body and began trying to carry it away. I’m not sure what came over me, but in that moment, love for that pet fish welled within me for the first time. I brushed the ants away and then I ate it.“

Needless to say, Fujimoto had an upset stomach the very next day. But went on to conceal the truth from his girlfriend up until this point.

According to Fujimoto, the reason he decided to confess it now was because the memory of lying to his girlfriend was far stronger than the guilt of eating the fish.

Tatsuki Fujimoto is a Japanese manga artist.

Fujimoto published his first serialized manga, Fire Punch, in Shueisha’s Shōnen Jump+ online magazine. It began serialization on April 18, 2016 and was collected into eight tankobon volumes.

The author’s second major work Chainsaw Man, began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump from Dec 3, 2018. The manga won the Kono Manga Sugoi award and the Harvey award. The part two of the series will be releasing this summer.

Fujimoto is an author who has not shied away from creating one-shots and short stories. He launched two one-shots in the year 2022. Goodbye, Eri released in Japan on April 11, 2022, and the latest one FUTSUU ni Kiitekure (Just Listen to the Song) on July 4, 2022.

Source: Reddit