Unji Zuma 3

Dreaming of his family, Unji is woken by Vega and joins him for breakfast. When he refuses to give proper thanks before eating, Vega slaps him as discipline, and Unji moves to storm off. Vega's remark that the attitude looks like giving up easily makes Unji sit back down, only to kick the table at him in defiance, sparking Vega's anger over the wasted food. Later attempts to land an umbrella strike on Vega all fail, since the officer reads every move. One night Unji creeps up to attack the sleeping Vega but halts the umbrella handle upon seeing a family photo at his side, then quietly returns to his room.

The next day Unji asks why Vega took him in despite having a family, and learns Vega's wife and daughter were killed by a stranger on the street. The killer, Vega explains, hated society and wanted to strike back at a rotten world by destroying those who looked happy. Vega confesses he once considered killing Unji and then himself, but his daughter's face stopped him each time. He insists that ignoring their decaying world only warps it further, and that he took Unji in because he refuses to give up. Unji counters that Vega cannot understand him after all society has done to his family, and leaves to visit the spot where his brother was found dead.

Vega makes a meal, but Unji ignores him and kicks the table over. Across repeated attempts to hurt Vega, Unji one night spots a photo of the officer's wife and daughter. Vega reveals they were murdered by a man driven by hatred of society. He admits he still thinks of killing Unji and himself, yet vows to protect him and better the world. Unji holds that society deserves to rot since no one helped his family, then walks off along the river in the rain.

The third Unji flashback chapter in Volume 18, it mirrors Vega's tragedy against Unji's, framing the central debate between giving up on the world and fighting to mend it. The chapter introduces Vega's slain wife and daughter.