Cracks in the Blade

Gathering firewood in a snowy wood near Godot's home, Erica mistakes the singing Puck for a bug and swats him senseless. Delighted by the strange creature, she runs to show Rickert but is blocked by a looming shadow that proves to be Guts, whose voice melts her fear into a smile. They return to Godot's mill, where Rickert now practices smithing, and Guts, apart for two years, marvels at how tall, long-haired, and muscled the boy has grown at the forge.

The reunion sours when Guts asks whether Casca is still safe. Rickert admits she has vanished, and Guts grabs the boy for an answer. Erica bursts into tears, blaming herself: a month earlier, pitying Casca's confinement to the cave, she let her out to play, and Casca slipped away the moment her back was turned. Guts demands why no one went searching, and Erica pounds his stomach, calling him a hypocrite for scolding them after abandoning Casca for two full years; Rickert had hunted for her many times without success but can no longer leave, since Godot is failing.

Upstairs, the bedridden Godot asks to inspect the Dragon Slayer and the prosthetic arm and judges they show ten years of wear in only two. Over those years he has weighed Guts' quest and cannot condone it, knowing the revenge targets something beyond human. He urges Guts to give it up and settle far away, but names the truth beneath it: Guts cannot quietly accept the deaths of the Band of the Falcon, has traded grief for rage, and flees Casca because she reminds him of that loss. Godot faults him for leaving Rickert and Casca, who hold as much right to vengeance as he does.

Erica discovers Puck and then meets the returning Guts. Guts reunites with a grown Rickert at Godot's mill. He learns that Casca disappeared a month earlier after wandering off on her own. Erica calls Guts a hypocrite for his two-year absence. The dying Godot inspects Guts' worn gear and urges him to abandon his quest for revenge.

This Conviction Arc chapter ran in Young Animal issue 20 in 1998. Godot's deathbed speech frames Guts' revenge as self-destructive and neglectful of the people he left behind, sharpening the arc's central question of what his quest costs Casca and Rickert.