Golden Age (5)

Guts dreams of his boyhood, hunted at eleven by Donovan across a field of bones. He pleads with Gambino for aid, but the man refuses, blaming Guts for his death, and even the dog wearing Shisu's face judges him unworthy of rescue. As Donovan overpowers him and Gambino dissolves into bone, the old mercenary spits that Guts should have died the day he was found as an infant. The scene shifts to Guts at fifteen, naked in a void, screaming to be left untouched as a bare Casca wraps around him.

He wakes in a strange tent, his shoulder throbbing with the memory of Griffith's blow, and steps out into a camp of remarkably young fighters. Casca, fresh from arguing with Griffith, storms over, greets him with a punch to the stomach, and leaves wishing Griffith had killed him. Judeau explains that Casca set aside her womanhood to serve as a mercenary and that Griffith had ordered her to sleep beside Guts for two nights to keep him warm. Griffith himself arrives, returns Guts' sword, and walks him through the camp under hostile stares, naming the group the Band of the Falcon, whose reputation Guts admits he has heard.

Atop a nearby hill Griffith confesses he spared Guts because he wants him among his ranks. Guts refuses and offers instead to repay the debt by running Griffith through, and when Griffith asks what he would gain by winning, Guts answers that Griffith may have him. Griffith accepts, saying he does not mind settling things by force, and draws his blade. Casca appears but is ordered not to interfere, and Guts is quickly overwhelmed, baffled that a simple falchion can beat his greatsword. The duel seems finished when Griffith leaps onto the flat of Guts' blade with his weapon at Guts' face, offering to postpone since Guts cannot lift the pinned sword. Guts snaps that Griffith talks too much and clamps his teeth onto the blade to fight on.

A nightmare revisits Guts' childhood and the deaths of Gambino and Shisu. Guts learns he has been kept alive in the Band of the Falcon's camp on Griffith's orders and is formally welcomed by Griffith. The two duel over Guts' freedom, with Guts wagering his own body, and Guts bites down on Griffith's sword to keep fighting.

The chapter introduces the camp of the Band of the Falcon and expands on Casca's role as its female commander who has renounced her womanhood. It surfaces Guts' traumatic aversion to being touched, rooted in his past. Rickert and Pippin are listed among the band's members here.