by Hiroaki Samura, 220 pages It's a violent three-on-one (with a few late-comers) fight to the death as Manji tries to get a traveler's pass from his unsavory prey so he can catch up to his foolish (or brave?) charge. Meanwhile, resolute Rin succeeds in talking her way to the checkpoint--but will she come out the other side?
My nerves took a little shredding this volume! While I expect the two principals to ultimately survive their encounters for the time being (other characters, who knows?), there's no guarantee they will be whole and intact when they do and no way to know by what thread or with how much suffering and (potentially permanent) scarring. Samura's characters are anything but static, and growth (whether positive or negative) is a given, so the reader rarely gets the opportunity to relax--except maybe when the characters sit around and eat while they talk things out. Those quiet moments a.) give us a little break while still revealing character relationships and b.) make me hungry. :) But there's none of that "relaxing" business this volume. Nope. *sigh*
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