Chapter 97

A look into the past shows Shishiba first crossing paths with Yotsumura, daring the veteran to strike him down on the spot. Rather than kill him, Yotsumura, short on hands for an upcoming job, invites the young assassin to come along. Shishiba refuses at first, then relents and joins him.

In the present, Osaragi's assault on Yotsumura prompts him to ask Shishiba whether the newcomer is a junior of his. Shishiba dryly apologizes for never drilling her on manners and vows to show her how to fell Yotsumura in a single stroke, drawing a wry remark from Yotsumura about how trying it is to manage an assistant who never listens.

Yotsumura swings his staff and Shishiba slips the blow. When Osaragi lunges once more, the parasol-wielding woman steps in to shield Yotsumura, grumbling that he only dotes on the young while he apologizes. As Osaragi weaves around her ferocious strikes, Yotsumura tells Shishiba he was recruited for a rare quality: either an unshakable conviction in killing or none at all, the kind of uncluttered mind that forges a strong assassin.

Shishiba, having heard the speech before, gripes about older men airing their philosophies. One of Yotsumura's henchmen rushes him, only to be evaded as Shishiba bolts for the roof, where another flings him through a restaurant ceiling. Unbothered, he beheads two of the underlings and helps himself to the food.

Told to take the fighting elsewhere, Shishiba stabs a shop worker yet still settles the bill for both his meal and the wrecked roof before leaving. Slipping past Yotsumura's staff earns him a gash across the face, and he answers by tearing open his mentor's cheeks. The cover pairs Shishiba with Yotsumura.