Chapter 131: Deal

Sakamoto's household hauls the captured Kashima back with them, but he refuses to talk. Amane floats killing him; Sakamoto argues that keeping him alive might yield answers about Uzuki and that violence settles nothing, so they leave him be and head to lunch. Left alone, Kashima broods over his notion of justice, until Hana slips in and carries him off in her bag, promising to mend him and pitying how helpless and poorly treated he has become.

Sakamoto returns to find both of them missing and flies into a rage. Hana, meanwhile, drags Kashima to a toy shop and asks the owner to make him mobile and adorable, and moments later his legs become tank treads he can barely steer. An appliance store adds a fan to his back, arms, and a jumble of gadgets including a cotton candy maker. Resting in a park, Kashima frets that her father will be furious.

Hana assures him that her kind-hearted father, whom she deeply admires, will not be angry, and her words set Kashima thinking about how Sakamoto fights to shield the people near him. When a car smashes through a nearby guardrail, Kashima's gadget-laden body fails to help and he tells Hana to run, but Sakamoto arrives to defuse the danger. After ribbing Kashima for how ridiculous he looks, Sakamoto rejects his plea to be killed, insisting he only wants to stop Uzuki and Kashima, not end them. Touched, Kashima agrees to reveal everything if they will save Uzuki, and Sakamoto takes the deal.

Sakamoto refuses to kill Kashima, betting that mercy and patience will pry loose intelligence on Uzuki. Hana's oddball rehabilitation, turning Kashima into a tank-wheeled contraption, softens him toward the Sakamoto family. Won over by Sakamoto's sincerity, Kashima strikes a bargain to share all he knows in exchange for a promise to save Uzuki.

The chapter opens the Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc while still sitting in Volume 15, running nineteen pages on August 21, 2023, in issue 38. It pivots the story from combat to Kashima's change of heart under Hana's care. Kashima, Sakamoto, Shin, Lu, Heisuke, Piisuke, Amane, and Hana appear, with Uzuki referenced. The cover features Kashima, Sakamoto, and Shin.