Chapter 173

Uzuki's memory returns to the moment Kindaka collapsed from poison before him. He fled, but Rion overtook him, locked him in a chokehold, pinned him down, and leveled a gun, demanding to know if he had deliberately dropped the antidote. Frustrated, Uzuki admitted he was forced to and lashed out with his blade-whip, and the two traded blows until she bested him yet chose to let him live.

Asked why she spared him, Rion says she came meaning to kill but sensed he was hiding something. Uzuki reveals his makeshift family is held hostage, above all Gaku, a boy he sees as a younger brother who was only thirteen at the time. He explains he was raised in a facility that molded orphans into JAA assassins under Asaki's command, forced onto missions he never wanted. Their talk breaks off when four JAA killers arrive to arrest them both for Kindaka's death. Uzuki reflexively denies Rion's involvement and steps forward to surrender, expecting to be killed, but Rion snatches an assassin's gun, downs him, and shoots the three surrounding Uzuki. He follows her lead and they escape.

On the run, Uzuki asks why she saved him when she could still return to the JCC. Rion says she also has a family to protect and does not see him as a villain, words that strike at his own struggle over whether he is good or bad. Hiding in a parked car, she promises a way to save his friends later rather than rushing back to the orphanage, and refuses to let him keep her out of it. They buy breakfast, chat about the JAA's terrible cafeteria food, and stop for gas, where neither can work the pump. Low on money, they ditch the car, plan to sell items from the trunk, and, when JAA pursuers appear, decide to steal the enemy's vehicle instead, drifting on with no fixed destination as Uzuki senses the life cannot last.

The chapter recounts the origin of Uzuki and Rion's partnership. After defeating and sparing Uzuki, Rion learns his family is held hostage and that he was raised as a JAA weapon under Asaki. When the JAA moves to arrest them both, Rion guns down the assassins to free Uzuki, becoming a fugitive herself. The two flee together, bonding over their shared wish to protect their loved ones as they scavenge and dodge pursuit.

Titled Escape (Tōhikō), this is the one hundred seventy-third chapter of the JAA Jail Arc. It ran in issue 32 of 2024 on July 8, 2024, and is collected in Volume 20. A katana glimpsed in the trunk of their stolen car foreshadows Uzuki's later theft of Takamura's blade, which he uses to kill the swordsman.