Page 1
A wide field under the midday sun.
Mabo walks alone, whistling as he strolls, the grass brushing against his legs. The air is unnaturally clean.
Then he stops.
In the center of the field, something black and shiny flickers slowly. It has no shape. No fixed size. It's as if it's breathing.
Mabo's heart beats hard for no reason.
"…What is this?"
Page 2
He approaches slowly. One step. Two steps.
The black thing looks like a living shadow, stretching and contracting as if waiting for him.
Mabo extends his hand.
Then he remembers. His hand in the Bloody Wedding Arena. The blackness that wrapped around his fingers slowly as if waking up.
He takes a step back.
The thing lunges toward him like liquid.
Page 3
It wraps around his arm.
"Aaaagh!"
A burning sensation pierces his skin down to the bone. Mabo screams and falls onto his back. He grips his arm with his other hand, trying to pull it off, but the blackness spreads. It eats his flesh. It enters his veins.
"Get off… get off me!!"
It reaches his shoulder. His neck. His face.
The world turns pitch black.
Page 4
Mabo wakes up.
He sits up in bed gasping, his body drenched in a cold sweat. He looks at his right hand.
Nothing.
But the burning sensation is still there beneath the skin, like an ember that hasn't been extinguished.
He hears a door open.
Thian peeks his head in: "Mabo. I heard your scream."
Mabo looks at him. He wears a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
"A nightmare. Just a nightmare."
But he knows. It's the same feeling that appeared in his hand before the Black Knight, but it's deeper now. Hungrier.
Page 5
The market. The noise. The smells of food.
Mabo walks beside the Grandfather quietly, his eyes scanning everything.
Then he hears it.
The sound of hitting. A muffled scream from a side alley.
He spots Totoki lying on the ground. Three boys older than him are beating him relentlessly.
Mabo's fist clenches.
Page 6
"Grandfather… I—"
Mabo lunges toward them instantly.
Mabo sees blood on Totoki's face.
Something snaps inside him.
He runs.
Page 7
One punch throws the first boy against the wall.
The second tries to flee. Mabo grabs him by the shirt and strikes him on the head.
Once.
Twice.
Blood appears.
The third boy screams in fear.
Mabo leaves the second in his blood; his eyes are red as he lunges toward the third. The blackness begins to appear on his knuckles.
Page 8
"Mabo!"
Totoki's voice is trembling: "Enough… stop!! You're going to kill him!!"
Mabo doesn't hear.
A powerful kick hits his shoulder and throws him away.
He stands. He looks. The Grandfather is before him. His face doesn't carry anger; it carries something worse than anger.
Disappointment.
Page 9
Mabo turns around.
The boy is on the ground. His face is covered in blood. He isn't moving.
His friends have fled.
Totoki trembles in the corner, crying silently, his eyes on Mabo—not on the boys who beat him.
Mabo opens his mouth.
Nothing comes out.
Page 10
The Grandfather grips Mabo's chin with merciless fingers.
"Look at him closely."
Mabo looks at the sprawled boy.
"This isn't protection, Mabo. This is revenge."
He grips tighter.
"And the blackness in your hand… if you let it take control, it won't protect anyone. It will destroy everything. Even those you love."
Mabo tries to pull away.
The Grandfather doesn't let go.
"You didn't save Totoki. You terrified him even more."
Page 11
The Grandfather leaves him and goes to help the injured boy.
Mabo stands alone.
He looks at his hand. The blackness has vanished. But the feeling remains beneath the skin like an ember waiting.
Totoki approaches him slowly. He stands before him.
He doesn't speak for a moment.
Then: "Mabo… you were so scary."
Page 12
The hideout. The four friends are sitting in a circle.
Mabo speaks in a low voice. Everything. The nightmare. The arena. The blackness that appears when he gets angry.
Yuzuha looks at him with thoughtful eyes: "So it grows whenever you feel rage."
Karki leans against the wall: "If it continues like this… you might not be able to control it, and you could hurt us."
A heavy silence fills the hideout.
Page 13
Yuzuha stands up: "I have an idea."
Everyone looks at her.
"You have to learn to direct the rage, not suppress it. We'll make you angry… and we'll help you release it or control it."
Mabo: "How?"
She wears a smile that isn't very reassuring.
"Follow me."
Page 14
Mabo steps out of the hideout door.
Before he can look around, a chain wraps around his arm and yanks him back violently.
Yuzuha from the right. Her scythe cuts the air beside his head.
"No time to think."
Page 15
Mabo dodges. He straightens up. Karki rushes from the front and slams into him with his shoulder like a wall.
Mabo rolls on the ground.
Totoki sits far off watching with wide eyes: "What are you two doing?!"
Yuzuha: "Helping him."
Another strike.
Page 16
Mabo rises. He breathes. He tries to stay calm.
A punch from Karki hits his shoulder. A chain wraps around his leg and trips him.
He stands again.
The rage rises.
In his head: his mother and father whom he doesn't know. The fact that he doesn't know where he came from. The Black Knight. Thian lying on the ground in the forest.
The blackness appears on his hand.
Page 17
He lunges toward Karki.
His punch is raised. The blackness covers his knuckles completely.
Karki's eyes widen.
One second.
Mabo's eyes fly open.
He redirects his punch at the last moment.
Page 18
BOOM.
The wall shatters into pieces. Dust fills everything.
Mabo collapses to his knees. He gasps.
The blackness slowly fades from his hand.
Yuzuha sits beside him. She says nothing. She only places her hand on his shoulder.
Then: "See? You can control it. But you have to work harder."
Page 19
Karki approaches. He stands before Mabo. He looks at the hand that almost reached him.
Mabo extends his hand to him.
Karki looks at it. He hesitates.
Then he takes it and helps him up.
"We're with you, Mabo. But if you go back to what happened in the market…" He pauses. "We'll have to truly resist you. We won't just stand and watch."
Mabo nods. Without a word.
Page 20
As they return, Mabo walks a step behind them.
In his head, there is only one voice.
I don't want to be the one who scares my friends.
He raises his eyes. His hands are before him.
I will learn to control this. Even if it hurts me.
Page 21
In the early morning.
Mabo stands before the Grandfather in the training yard. The air is cold. No one else is there.
The Grandfather looks at him with a long silence.
"You learned something important yesterday."
Mabo: "What?"
"That the difference between a power and a monster… is a single moment. That moment you decided not to strike Karki."
Page 22
"But that moment won't always come on its own. You must build it. Every day. Until it becomes stronger than the rage."
Mabo looks at his hands.
"And if I can't?"
Grandfather: "Then we will train until you can."
Page 23
The Grandfather goes to a corner and calls for Thian to come to the training yard. The Grandfather grabs wooden swords and throws them toward them. "From this day forward..."
Page 24
"You will both train every day until you cannot move. I am not playing here; I am making heroes out of you."
Mabo looks at the Grandfather and remembers the moment of the punch to the Armored Knight, his conversation with Linsan, and the reason he called him Thian. He looks at the Grandfather.
"I have a question."
"Yes."
"Who are you really, Grandfather?"
To be continued in Chapter 12