Page 1
A faint blue light appears in Mabu's eyes.
Lukaji places a small device on his chest. A wooden indicator inside it moves left and right without settling — as if something inside refuses to be read.
"Your circuit is unstable."
Lukaji pauses.
"This isn't normal."
Page 2
The old man stands behind him.
"Can you do something?"
Lukaji exhales.
"The problem is that Mabu's circuit is rare — it doesn't work like most. Most people use their power through Zuu or physical effort. But Mabu's power is tied to his emotions. It comes out when his feelings move — not when he commands it."
He pauses.
"And when he does command it, it forms very weakly."
Page 3
"If I try to intervene and misjudge the circuit type, I could harm him instead of help him."
Mabu looks at him.
"And I don't even know which type of Stone Mantle he has. There are three: Solid, Adhesive, and Elastic. Each has a different flow."
He turns to the old man.
"Which type do you have?"
Page 4
The old man thinks for a moment.
"How do I tell them apart?"
"Solid makes you like a rock — heavier, stronger, harder to affect, but slow. Adhesive wraps around your body and increases both speed and strength together. Elastic extends beyond your body — your hands lengthen, take shape."
The old man nods.
"Adhesive. Likely both of us."
Lukaji slaps his palms together.
"Damn. If it were Elastic the whole thing would be much simpler."
Page 5
Mabu looks at where his hands used to be.
"So what now?"
Lukaji stands.
"I'll think. I need time with my things."
He enters his room. He closes the door.
Mabu remains alone in the middle of the room.
He raises his armless wrists. He tries to move something that isn't there.
He breathes deep.
A knock at the door.
Page 6
Thian opens it.
Yuzuha. Karki. Totoki.
Thian freezes where he stands.
"What… what are you doing here?"
Yuzuha looks at him.
"And hello to you too."
Thian takes one step back.
"Come in."
Page 7
They enter.
Yuzuha sees Mabu first.
Mabu smiles — a smile that hides nothing.
"You came."
They run to him. They all embrace him at once. Yuzuha holds his head in both hands.
"You frightened me. I didn't know what to do."
Mabu doesn't move his arms. He can't.
"I'm here. Just without hands."
Page 8
Yuzuha steps back. She looks at where his hands used to be.
She touches the space with her fingertips.
"How did this happen?"
"I don't remember exactly. I was fighting. The darkness wrapped around me completely. And when I woke up I found myself like this."
Silence in the room.
Page 9
Thian breaks the silence.
"What brought you here?"
Yuzuha turns to him.
Then she turns to the old man — who came out from the side room at that moment.
She looks at him directly.
"The village burned."
Page 10
The old man stops.
"Linsan came looking for you. He found no one who would answer him. So he killed who he killed. And burned what he burned."
Thian: "No… you're lying."
Yuzuha doesn't look at him. She looks only at the old man.
"Half the village didn't come back. The rest scattered into the forests."
The old man lowers his head.
He doesn't answer.
Page 11
Mabu smiles. A smile that doesn't fit the moment.
The smile of someone trying to carry something larger than themselves.
"So… the hideout is gone. The narrow alley we used to run through. The tree we used to climb. All of it."
He stops.
"All of it at the hands of one man."
Page 12
Yuzuha tightens her fist.
"Yes. One man named Linsan."
She looks at the old man again. Then at everyone.
"And that's why I'm here. For nothing else. I want revenge for them. For every single one of them."
The old man finally raises his head.
"None of you are going anywhere."
He takes one step forward.
"Not until you've heard everything."
Page 13
Thian: "Tell us then."
"I've been avoiding this day for years."
The old man sits in a chair. He places his hands on his knees.
"Because I know that when you learn the truth — we won't sit together as a family the same way. Because revenge will swallow us. And revenge is what started all of this in the first place."
Mabu: "I don't care. I want to know who you are. Who my father is. Everything."
Page 14
The old man looks at him.
He looks at Thian. At Yuzuha. At Karki. At Totoki.
He exhales — the exhale of a man setting down a weight he has carried alone for a very long time.
"I wish peace could last a little longer."
A moment of silence.
"Sit down. I'll tell you everything."
Page 15
"I was born into a family with a name in the North. A family of fighters. My father was its leader. He taught me everything. The sword. Combat. Discipline. Everything."
He pauses.
"But when I grew up — I wasn't what he wanted."
Page 16
"I drank. I fought. I caused problems wherever I went. Not for any reason. I was just lost — and I didn't know it."
Mabu looks at him. He tries to imagine the old man as a young man. He can't.
"Eventually my father cast me out of the family. And before I left, I stole his sword. And I stole some of the incantations."
Mabu: "Why?"
"Because I was reckless. Nothing more."
Page 17
"Then came the day that changed everything."
The old man pauses. He looks at his hands.
"I walked into a bar in a city where I didn't know anyone. And I saw a girl who worked there. I don't know how to describe what I felt. I just started going back to that place every day. Just to see her."
He raises his head slowly.
"And after a long time — she looked at me. She loved me."
Page 18
"But she was bound to the restaurant owner because of her father's debts. I went to him. I demanded he release her. He refused. We fought. I broke his back."
Mabu: "You broke his back?"
The old man looks at him — calm.
"Yes."
"We took her out of there that night. And on the way back from the restaurant — I met a man whose name filled that entire city."
Page 19
"Ginzo. Leader of the Jouki Gang. At the height of their power."
Everyone breathes in silence.
"That was the first meeting. We fought. And in my youth I was something different. I defeated him. And I cut out his left eye."
He pauses.
"And I left there happy. Happy like a fool who doesn't understand what he's done."
Mabu looks at the old man's face. He sees something he has never seen there before. Not regret. Something heavier than regret.
Page 20
"We married. We lived. We had two sons. Quiet years. I thought I had freed myself from that past."
He pauses for a long time.
"Then one ordinary day, I came home from work."
He stops.
"And I saw the house burning from a distance."
Page 21
"I ran. My two sons were outside the house. I don't know how they got out. Maybe they escaped before it fully caught. I went in."
He doesn't continue immediately.
The room is completely silent. No one moves.
"I tried. I tried with everything I had."
One tear falls from the old man's eye. Only one. Then it stops.
"I couldn't."
Page 22
"When I brought her out — she had burned completely."
He stops.
"And I found writing on the wall behind her."
He raises his head.
He looks at everyone.
He says the words in a low voice that doesn't shake.
"You are the loser, poor man. The Jouki Gang."
Page 23
No one speaks.
Mabu looks at the old man.
Thian looks at the floor.
Yuzuha places her hand over her mouth.
Karki tightens his fist.
Totoki closes his eyes.
Page 24
The old man looks at his hands — folded over his knees.
"That night…"
He pauses.
"That night I was no longer what I had been."
He raises his head. Toward the ceiling. Toward nothing.
"And everything I built after that — everything — was an attempt to forget that night."
Silence fills the room.
Then Mabu's voice — quiet as still water:
"And you couldn't."
The old man doesn't answer.
But he doesn't deny it.
Continued in Chapter Thirty