Chapter 12: Source of Strength

Newly slimmed down, Sakamoto announces he is finally ready to fight in earnest. Boiled scoffs, asking whether shedding weight has suddenly given him confidence, and presses him to hurry since his family is in danger. Sakamoto answers that he feels no worry because he trusts the family watching his back, then drives a fist into Boiled so fast the man cannot even reply, hurling him through a wall.

Elsewhere on a timer, Obiguro dares Lu to stop fleeing and attack. Lu lashes out with her hair the moment the count begins, and Shin yells at her to get serious. Obiguro floors Lu with a heel-drop she calls an emperor-slaying karate secret, and Shin cries out her name. Rather than staying down, a tipsy Lu bursts into laughter at Shin's shrill panic, drunkenly slips the next kick, and lands a hit by kissing the arm aimed at her. She refuses to strike with lethal intent, explaining that not killing is the rule of her family, the household of Shin, Taro, Aoi, and Hana. Obiguro mocks her, insisting they share no blood and that the Sakamotos number only three.

Lu fires back that she has mastered the cash register during her short time in Japan and that Hana even called her lead-employee material, then furiously throws a punch that stops just short of Obiguro's cheek. Sobering up, she asks Shin where they are, while Obiguro, impressed that Lu held back yet pushed her this far, admits she adores strong opponents. Back in the main fight, Boiled's awareness slips as Sakamoto's kicks land, and he marvels that the legendary retired hitman remains this formidable. He scatters his bombs, but Sakamoto catches and crushes them, telling Boiled that he too once used his power to harm others and now channels it to protect those he loves, calling that his real source of strength. The pair crash through a Ferris wheel car, and Boiled concedes that Sakamoto is the very picture of hard-boiled.

A leaner Sakamoto begins fighting Boiled seriously and smashes him through a wall. Lu battles Obiguro without killing, citing her adopted family's rule and counting Shin, Taro, Aoi, and Hana as her own. Sakamoto crushes Boiled's bombs and declares that protecting loved ones is the origin of his strength before wrecking a Ferris wheel car with him.

Carrying the title Tsuyosa no Wake, this nineteen-page chapter falls in Volume 2 during the Amusement Park Arc. Sakamoto and Boiled share the cover. It first appeared in the twelfth 2021 issue and centers on the theme that love, not cruelty, fuels Sakamoto's power.