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Published In:
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| Publication Date: May 8, 2019 | |
| Pages: 4 (full color) 34 (black and white) | |
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Manga Summaries
Volume 1
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| Chapters Originally Published in: | |
| Shonen Sunday 2019 Vol. 23 - 30 |
Chapter
1: 菜花
Nanoka
(Nanoka)
In the crater of an explosion, a small child is found bleeding by rescuers. Flashing forward to the present day we see the same girl, Nanoka Kiba, as a teen as she says goodbye to her grandfather and parents and leaves for middle school. Before she leaves, Uozumi, the family's maid, gives Nanoka a smoothie on her way out the door. After performing poorly in a race, Nanoka's classmates discuss strange sounds coming from a rundown shopping street in Gogyo, their town. It so happened that it is the same area where Nanoka was in an accident as a child. Nanoka thinks back to the day of the accident. Eight years ago her parents were driving her to her school during her first grade year when a sinkhole opened beneath their car and they crashed into it. Strangely Nanoka was found outside of the car unconscious and covered in blood. When Nanoka revisits the site of the accident she wanders down the shuttered shopping street and passes through a time warp, arriving in the past and seeing the street as it once was a century ago. Before she can flee a woman approaches her only to tear open her own body, revealing a giant praying mantis hiding inside her husk of a human form. Nanoka flees from its attack when a young man with two-toned hair and his assistant arrive. The young assistant calls the boy Mao. Mao watches the scene unfold, puzzled that Nanoka seems to be a real person rather than the ghostly individuals that stroll the streets of the past. As he watches the mantis slices Nanoka's arm and where her blood sprays on the creature it immediately starts to dissolve as if her blood were acidic. Mao steps in and finishes it off while his young assistant uses a shovel to pick over the remains and discovers a small mantis among the visera. As Nanoka berates Mao for not stepping in sooner she soon realizes that her entire arm was sliced off by the mantis and faints from shock. When she wakes she has her arm bandaged and apparently returned to good working order. She watches as the little assistant drops the tiny mantis he found into a jar. Mao is silent for a moment before commenting on Nanoka's blood injuring the giant mantis before he nonchalantly comments that Nanoka must be a monster- an ayakashi. Nanoka hurries away, passing under the shopping street's archway and traveling back to her own time, though Mao is unable to follow when he passes under. Back in her own world, Nanoka returns home and takes a bath, revealing that her wound is completely healed. At dinner her grandfather tells her she is frail and must be careful about her health after asking about the bandages she was wearing when she returned. The family maid once again gives her a repulsive tasting smoothie that Nanoka chugs unquestioningly. In the other world Mao believes there is a barrier preventing him from passing through the gate leading to the shopping street, leaving him unable to follow Nanoka. His young assistant asks him about the pills he gave Nanoka and Mao explains that they were to aid in detoxification, he further explains that something is sealing a great power within Nanoka. In the present day Nanoka runs to school when she sees her friend Yui riding past on a bicycle. Not paying attention she dashes into the street and is nearly hit by a speeding truck when she suddenly leaps out of the way, a leap that carries her all the way up the side of a building onto the roof. When she lays down to catch her breath her pupils have become like slits and fangs have started to grow in her mouth as her body aches in pain.
Chapter
2: 摩緒
Mao
(Mao)
Panicked over what has just happened, Nanoka decides to head home instead of going to school. Her grandfather sees that her pupils have taken on a strange appearance and tells her to go to bed while Uozumi, the maid, prepares a smoothy for her to drink. As she ponders what has happened to her in the last day, she decides to go seek out the abandoned shopping street again and see if she can find Mao. Dashing off, she does not take the smoothy her grandfather and Uozumi try to press upon her. Passing through the portal to the past Nanoka finds the little boy that was helping Mao earlier. He explains Mao is currently away but introduces himself as Otoya. Nanoka inquires if Mao and Otoya live in this place and the young boy responds they just arrived in the city yesterday, though both of them look like normal people while everyone else has a ghostly transparency to them. While walking through a park an intimidating looking policeman approach Mao and gruffly starts to ask him questions. Suddenly Mao slaps him in the face with a sticky piece of paper and pulls it away to reveal a tuft of fur attached. The policeman's disguise falls apart revealing him to be a monstrous bear. As Mao prepares to battle against the creature, Otoya and Nanoka arrive and watch from a distance. Otoya explains that Mao is an occultist and sometimes has to do battle with creatures as well as help people with ailments and read people's fortunes. Mao tells the creature he knows it is Byoki a term that Nanoka confuses with "illness" but Otoya explains is written like "cat oni". Mao turns his back on the creature and it leaps to attack him. When it draws blood with its fangs Mao's blood causes the creature to dissolve just as Nanoka's blood did with the mantis creature previously. Mao returns to bandage his wounds and Nanoka asks if he can help her, but he explains his blood would harm her just as it did the creature. When asked if Mao is cursed, Otoya explains that his blood is corrosive because he was attacked by Byoki long ago, a powerful creature that had killed many others and gained in power. Nanoka is shocked to see three giant scars from the claws of Byoki that once attacked and cursed Mao still carved on his back. Finally Mao asks if she came back just to ask about these things and Nanoka says no. She tells them that she knows she is human because her parents were normal people. Then she thinks back to the accident she was in as a child where their car crashed into a sinkhole. She remembers it happening right in front of the gate that now leads to the past, but also seeing the shadow of some sort of creature among the flames in the aftermath of her crash.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: May 15, 2019 | |
| Pages: 30 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
3: ゲートの向こう
Geeto no mukou
(The Other Side of the Gate)
Nanoka discusses the creature she recalls seeing during her childhood with Mao when Otoya arrives and tells his master that their vehicle has arrived. Nanoka wanders outside and is shocked to see a rickshaw that carries away the duo. As they ride away Mao and Otoya discuss Nanoka before turning around and seeing her swiftly chasing after them. When the arrive in town Nanoka is surprised to see that the citizens are no longer transparent like the ones near the shopping street and realizes that the world beyond the gates of the shopping street seem to be normal. However, she soon realizes that this is not the present but the past. Mao picks up a newspaper as he is concerned about reports murderer on the loose decapitating people with a headline saying the killer has just claimed his fifth victem. Nanoka however is more curious about the date and realizes the date marks it as the twelfth year of the Taisho Era- 1923. Mao stops off at a cafe to drop off some anemia medicine with a waitress named Tenko who immediately comments on Nanoka's unusual clothing. Settling in to eat some sweets as they await one of Mao's clients Nanoka asks Mao if he is indeed from the Taisho Era though he gives a vague response. Soon Mao's client, Sayoko, arrives and mentions the decapitation murders that have taken place. She tells Mao about her employer who's face began to swell causing him to constantly keep his face bandaged. His wife is the only one allowed to tend him and he only ventures out after dark. One night Sayoko watched as her master carried a leather satchel that was leaking blood and had hair coming out of the top leading her to believe he might be the one responsible for the murders. Tenko listens in and wonders aloud if the killer might also have something to do with the monster Mao has been searching for and he comments that he would like to investigate. Thinking back on the past, Mao recalls long, long ago when Byoki nearly killed him as it tried to possess his body. Nanoka decides to follow Mao on his stakeout as Sayoko goes inside to check on the master of the house. As she does, she wonders why her time and 1923 are connected and what it has to do with her own bodily transformation that occured earlier. Inside the house Sayoko is called into see the master of the house who immediately says he can smell the scent of the people she has brought onto his property.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: May 22, 2019 | |
| Pages:24 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
4: 顔のない子爵
Kao no nai shishaku
(The Faceless Viscount)
The bandaged man begins to threaten Sayoko as he picks up a sword and slowly unsheathes it. As he approaches her, he hesitates, questioning why he is doing this and apologizing. Suddenly Mao crashes through the window. From beneath the balcony Nanoka and Otoya can tell Mao is confronting someone and Otoya says they should go see as he slowly climbs the trellis. Nanoka leaps from the ground to the balcony in one swift leap, stunning the little boy. Mao asks the bandaged man if he is really the lord of the house, but he simply laughs and leaps out the window, bounding up to the roof of his home with Mao in pursuit. Downstairs Nanoka explains to the man's wife that Mao is an occultist investigating the decapitation murders. On the roof Mao can sense that the evil corruption surrounding this man is different than that of the creature he is searching for. With a deft slash of his sword, Mao splits the bandages from the man's face but much to his surprise a blanket of spider webs pour out. Confused Mao dashes back inside only to find more spider webs filling the interior of the house. It seems that the man was not the true culprit at all, it was his meek and mild wife who is that true spider demon. Trapping Nanoka in her web, she says that she can make use of Mao's handsome young body while she has no use for Nanoka and plans to kill her and let her body fertilize their garden. As the webs tighten around Nanoka's throat her eyes change into fierce-looking slits.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: May 29, 2019 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
5: 蜘蛛女
Kumo onna
(Spider Lady)
Mao rushes back inside from his fight atop the roof of the mansion only to find the room completely filled with spider webs. He cuts his way inside and spies Nanoka being strangled by the webbing and immediately notices her eyes have become demonic as she struggles violently to free herself. Watching in vain with Otoya, Mao sees Nanoka bounce about until the web tightens enough on her throat to strangle her unconscious. Just before he can cut her free with his katana however the spider woman fires a rifle at Mao, making him drop his sword. With Mao now vulnerable, the spider woman tells him that she has been using the decapitated heads as incubators for her hundreds of baby spiders. Otoya watches as the spider woman is about to sink her fangs into Mao, wondering if his blood will then kill her when suddenly yanked away by a powerful unseen force. Both Mao and Otoya are shocked to see Nanoka using her superhuman strength. It seems the web that tightened on her throat caused her to bleed slightly, just enough for her poisonous blood to weaken the web on her throat so she could breath again. Despite her fierce appearance, when the spider woman turns to face Nanoka the girl immediately flees saying she has never fought in her life and is afraid of the creature. Mao tries to reach his katana but only becomes more and more ensnared in the spider web trap when suddenly powerful energy slashes dice the monster to pieces. Somehow Nanoka used Mao's katana with a high level of skill, but when asked she claims she was merely trying to cut away the webs. Mao tells Nanoka that only he can use that katana and silently wonders how he and Nanoka can be the same.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: June 5, 2019 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
6: 呪われた物
Norowareta mono
(The Accursed)
Standing before the skeleton of the spider woman they just defeated, Mao explains to Nanoka that his sword is cursed just as he is. He tells Nanoka that he used the sword against the demon when he battled it long ago and that its blood cursed the blade. He explains that over the centuries there were times when the blade had been stolen and anyone that tried to swing it would suddenly start to bleed due to the poisonous blood of Byoki that was enfused into the sword. After that anytime that the sword was stolen or lost it would always return to Mao eventually. Mao adds that if Nanoka can use his sword that means that she too is cursed by Byoki. Otoya interrupts and points out that during the barrage from the katana he was sliced in half which shocks Nanoka to see the little boy missing his legs but still awake and alert. Mao calmly lifts up Otoya's cleaved body and promises the little boy Nanoka will never use his katana again. Before he leaves, Mao tells Sayoko that she should tell the authorities that she knows nothing about what happened there. Heading back to the shopping street with Otoya's two halves, Mao unpacks a small doll that resembles the boy that has a large gouge in its torso. Wrapping the doll in a slip of paper he shoves the entire thing into Otoya's mouth which then passes through his missing torso and restores his legs. Mao removes the paper wrapping from the doll and Otoya is restored to perfect health. Mao explains he transfered the wound to the doll and then mended it and Otoya adds that he was created from the doll when Mao enfused his spiritual energy into it. Mao goes on to add that the creature that Nanoka saw after her family's accident so long ago must have been the very same creature who's blood cursed him and his sword. Mao silently wonders if Byoki has gone somewhere that he will be unable to find it if Nanoka encountered it beyond the barrier that leads to her time. As Nanoka is the only one that can go beyond the barrier she promises to return and see if she can find out anything that might be useful. Before she departs Mao gives her some medicine that he says she should take in case she gets in trouble. Upon leaving Nanoka is puzzled that it is night time in the present world. Upon returning home she realizes she has not been gone a few hours but has been missing for a week. Her grandfather has been furiously worried about her and their maid, Uozumi, had helped in the search as well. At school, Nanoka's friends believed she had been hospitalized during her long absense. In class she begins to research the accident her family was involved in which took place on September 1, 2011 at noon. She reads the online article on her phone describing her parents death and how she, then a mere seven years old, was thrown from the car and survived. When she confesses she cannot find much of use about the accident her friends take her over to meet Shiraha, a fellow classmate who is good at research. He says he would be happy to help but there is something odd about that accident.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: June 12, 2019 | |
| Pages:3 (full color) 16 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
7: 陥没事故
Kanbotsu jiko
(The Sinkhole)
Meeting at WacDonald's, Nanoka and Shiraha discuss the sinkhole incident that killed her parents nine years ago. Shiraha tells her that according to news websites the cause of the accident is still unclear and is even able to find some tweets from passersby that witnessed the event. Shiraha finds someone questioning how Nanoka could have been thrown from the car when all of the windows were rolled up. As they finish up Shiraha apologizes for taking an interest in Nanoka's accident catches Nanoka off guard when says he thinks she is very mentally tough for being able to deal with such a tragedy. The next day at school Nanoka's friends whisper to her that Shiraha is not actually interested in the accident, instead he has a crush on Nanoka and is curious about her. Later Nanoka decides to visit Mao in the past and finds him giving medical treatment to various demons. After he finishes his work she is shocked when he says she has not visited in ten days when she was only in the present for two days. Mao goes on to tell Nanoka that he looked into her story about visiting his time when there was a fire burning the shopping street, but at no time has he found any record of a fire taking place. Elsewhere in a temple a number of people sit patiently and wait for a psychic named Shoko to appear. When she does they excitedly ask her to speak to them but one man angrily stands up and claims she is fake. He demands that if she really has the power she claims then she will be able to kill him with her powers. Shoko calmly tells him that in three days he will die. When Mao hears about Shoko's claims he decides to investigate saying that Byoki also had similar abilities.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: June 19, 2019 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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Chapter
8: 寿命を操る
Jumyou wo ayatsuru
(Power Over Life And Death)
Mao recounts when he first encountered Byoki long, long ago having first seen the cat demon in the treasure hall of a temple. In the hall Byoki devoured a secret book that contained knowledge about manipulating the life span of people allowing it to learn the secrets held within. Mao explains that Byoki wanted his body and so altered it so that he would live a very long time. When Nanoka asks him how long ago that was he says he has stopped counting but it was about 900 years ago. Mao wonders why Byoki would curse him and then fail to claim his body and flee instead. For these reasons Mao says he needs to investigate Shoko, but he wants Nanoka to help him. Dressed in period clothing Nanoka is taken into the temple to listen to Shoko's prophecies. Shoko begins to speak about visions of seeing people fleeing a massive fire and as she continues Nanoka begins to become nervous. Suddenly a woman in the crowd pleads with Shoko to cure her daughter who is dying from a disease. Shoko takes the child and embraces her as their bodies glow the little girl wakes up seemingly healed. Outside Mao and Otoya speak with a woman who tells them that a man Shoko predicted to die in three days did indeed die just as she said, but they are puzzled when Otoya discovers a curse doll buried in front of his house to seemingly make Shoko's prophecy come true artificially.
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Published In:
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| Publication Date: June 26, 2019 | |
| Pages: 18 (black and white) | |
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