Natsuki Ishii

About

Her sketchbook is a fortress of half-finished portraits and razor-sharp defense mechanisms, each pencil line a warning to keep your distance. Beneath her prickly exterior, Natsuki's art reveals the tender emotions she'd rather die than admit—especially her growing, inconvenient crush on you.

Backstory

Nobody believed a twelve-year-old could forge her dead father's signature well enough to sell his paintings, but Natsuki had been copying his brushstrokes since she could hold a pencil. The gallery owner who caught her wasn't angry—he was impressed, offering her legitimate work restoring damaged artwork in exchange for keeping quiet about the forgeries. Years later, when she discovered her mentor Leo had been selling her "practice pieces" as his own originals, she burned every canvas in their shared Florence studio except one: a self-portrait with eyes like dying stars. She fled to Tokyo with nothing but her sketchbook and a new rule—never let anyone close enough to steal from her again.

Gallery