Chapter 167

Voice heavy with contempt, Takamura declares the world overrun by people undeserving of life. Haruma is torn apart trying to shield Uzuki, and as the swordsman advances, Sakamoto and Nagumo throw themselves in with a bench and a staff. Their wounds leave them doubting they can withstand the exchange, and Takamura sweeps their guard aside and leaves them broken on the ground.

Gaku charges next with his mace. When Takamura levels the katana at his face, Gaku bites down on the tip, snaps off a shard, and rakes it across Takamura's face, blinding his right eye. The elderly killer answers by running him through, killing him. Turning his ruined blade on Sakamoto and Nagumo, Takamura overpowers them completely, and a heavy despair settles over the pair as his strength seems beyond anything they can resist.

Moving toward Uzuki, Takamura is swamped by memories of Gaku, Haruma, and the rest of the Al-Kamar orphanage group, and the ache of losing Rion crashes down on him. He drops to his knees, grips his head, and screams, demanding to know why his family is always taken from him. At the same moment Uzuki begins to hear voices crowding his mind. Then, in a shocking reversal, Takamura is cleanly cut in two, undone by his own turmoil, as Uzuki gives rise to a fresh persona shaped after Takamura. Sakamoto and Nagumo can only stare, unable to believe what they are witnessing.

Takamura kills Haruma and Gaku and beats Sakamoto and Nagumo into helplessness, though Gaku blinds his right eye first with a broken blade shard. Nearing Uzuki, Takamura is overwhelmed by grief for his lost Al-Kamar family, especially Rion, and collapses screaming. Uzuki, hearing new voices, then manifests a Takamura-based persona and slices the swordsman in half, leaving Sakamoto and Nagumo stunned.

Titled Peering Into the Abyss, this is the one hundred and sixty-seventh chapter of Sakamoto Days and part of the Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc. It ran in the twenty-sixth 2024 issue on May 27, 2024, and covers nineteen pages within Volume 19. The cover features Takamura, Haruma, and Uzuki. Kumanomi, Uda, Rion Akao, and Lu Wutang all appear in flashback as Takamura's memories surface.