"You know, Sakai, I first met Pitman purely because I wanted to get my hands on those different kinds of art."

"Although you are here to refine your ninjutsu, I am impressed by the abstract animals and the strange and gloomy hand-drawn books that you draw at an incredible speed."

"But the exploration of weird art, IMHO... Sakai, you're nowhere near that Pittman. ”

"Even if your ninjutsu can bring the things on the canvas to life in the real world, and show the imagery in the painting in a three-dimensional way, this is not the ability of all painters."

"But you're still inferior to that Pittman, whose paintings are nothing short of stunning!"

"In this regard, that Pittman can be said to be a ghost, a unique ghost in this world!"

"When I first visited him, I just wanted to try it out and get in touch with a person who didn't have such a good reputation in the painting world."

"But gradually, somehow, I started to get addicted to visiting him."

"Every time I visited him, he showed me a side of the world that no one else knew, maybe many orthodox painters called it a pathological heresy, but somehow, I just felt that his paintings had a magic that made me fall in love with it and even worship it."

"Maybe there is no shortage of painters in this world who can vividly depict ukiyo-e with smooth lines and beautiful landscapes, but it is only Pittman who really understands what it means to be lifelike and creepy."

"The lines and proportions of his paintings are horribly accurate, and you can even use his paintings as a reference for a scary anatomical or physiological lesson."

"The right use of color contrast and chiaroscuro always makes my hair stand on end when I look at the paintings, and every time I look at his paintings, it feels like I'm on a terrifying and exciting trip, which is a golden experience that those horror pictures on cheap roadside stalls can't match."

"In short, Pitman is really unprecedented, and hopefully there will be no one to come..."

Ike said a lot of things, as if he had opened the conversation box after getting drunk, but his words were clearly worded, and they didn't seem like they were made up.

Sakai, who was sitting precariously, did not look disinterested as most people would do at this moment, and Sakai, who was expressionless, took the trouble to write down the words "Pittman" in his small notebook.

This notebook is not a great notebook, but a "dating notebook" prepared by Sakai at the suggestion of Yamato, which is used to record reliable dating strategies, friend preferences, and the names of people worth befriending.

After listening to Ike's description at this time, Sakai didn't have much of a concept, but silently recorded the word "Pittman" among the people worth befriending.

Ike took two more sips of wine, slightly moistened his thirsty and smoking throat, and then went on to talk to Sakai about the painter he admired and then feared.

"You know, Sakai, life painters like us always believe that we can only create vibrant paintings when we are confronted with natural landscapes and models, which is completely incomparable to the conformity of those commercial painters who are not in the mainstream and paint in a bare studio."

"Yes, even painters of strange art can use the illusions in their brains as models, and they can awaken something from the world they live in that is very close to the real scene, even if it is a flower or a grass, there is a real reference in reality."

"In short, Pittman's paintings are very different from those that are deceitful and shoddy, and I am not exaggerating, if I had seen with my own eyes the terrible things in Pittman's paintings..."

"Forget it, I'd better have a glass of wine and talk..."

"If I see those things... If he's human... When I saw those things, I couldn't live! ”

"I'm going to go crazy! Frightened into talking crazy on the streets, and then immediately sent to an insane asylum! In the end, he died alone in the abyss of endless pain. ”

"Maybe his exquisite painting skills are to make those things so horrible to embellish, but he is a realist painter who believes in absolute truth!"

"Pickman's best part of creating faces, he can sketch those tiny facial features and distorted expressions like hell, but it's definitely not imagination!"

"The painting of which he was proud, and after I had promised to keep it a secret for this unusual painting, and had the courage to look at it, he finally lifted the canvas that I cared so much about."

"I can't describe what is on that painting, and I don't want to describe it!"

"But I still remember the name of the painting, and although it was curious, I remember the name word for word!"

"The Ghoul in Feeding"

"That's the name of that painting!"

"After he showed me the painting, he wanted to invite me to the basement of his house to see his updated paintings."

Pittman said that the painting he was working on recently was the same subject as the Ghoul in Feeding, and that it was a series of paintings.

"He's been able to find a reliable model, but for reasons of creative angles and other reasons, the last painting of his series will need an assistant to assist in completing it."

"Considering that he is a heretic in the world of painting, and I am deeply fascinated by his paintings, he hopes that that person will be me."

"He wanted me to help his model finish the last painting in that series!"

"His eyes at the time... I'll never forget the ferocious look in his eyes, and his feverish plea for my help. ”

"But... I couldn't make out my face at the time, but I knew that my eyes must have been filled with fear, because I really didn't want to see his model, the thing that made people shudder at the look of a painting that copied his appearance. ”

"So I immediately ran out of the door and fled."

"This is the whole process of me and him from friendship to breaking up, and for the next three days, I didn't dare to visit again, and even fled directly to Konoha Village."

"That's right, in fact, there are many reasons why I came to Konoha Village this time, one of which is that I want to stay away from there, and I hope that the Konoha ninjas here can give me a little peace of mind."

"So now you can understand me, right? Sakai, it's not that I want to be so neurotic, it's that it scares me. ”

......

Call...

Call...

After a long time, a quiet gasp sounded on the wine table, which was made by Ike, who was lying motionless on the wine table.

Sakai, who was next to him, stood up and groped through Ike's impoverished pocket, and pulled out a Konoha pass from inside.

The Konoha Pass is a pass issued by Konoha Village to outsiders, and it is marked with basic information such as name, where you are coming from, and how long you plan to stay in Konoha Village.

This is Konoha Village's means of eliminating spy ninjas, so ordinary people don't dare to lie about it.

And on Ike's Konoha Pass, it happens to be written where Ike came to Konoha Village from.

"Kawanokuni, North Cape Town..."