Brendon A

8/10 After Sensei Ito leaves Kojiro and gonnosuke to fend for themselves in the forest. A bunch of refugees attack Kojiro because they think he killed their people. Gonnosuke follows Ito and tries to survive because he’s been told he’s too weak and will die. All the while, a certain group of refugees it seems travel to find their lord in Osaka and one of the stronger types (Koun) is carrying an injured soldier. Kojiro fights people off through out a whole night and is still being attacked while he nods off from exhaustion. The refugees get jumped by the peasants in the area because they are told if they kill refugees they will have cheaper tax on their land. Some get murdered (Toshimune and Ugen) while others made it through the night to survive. They disguise them selves as peasants and continue to move on until they se, Kojiro covered in blood standing tall on the peak of the mountain. One of the refugees (Sadakore) stays behind to confront Kojiro and talk to him but it becomes physical. On the other hand, Ito is telling Gonnosuke about how Kojiro is learning what true fear and being frightened to die feels like. That’s the only way to become strong. On the mountain top, sadakore disarms Kojiro and Kojiro wraps his arm up and tries to grab his sword back and when sadakore slices his wrapped up hand , it reveals a hidden knife Kojiro had and stabbed him in the neck. The end.

7.5/10 While walking a new venture, Sasaki Kojiro & his new master Ito Ittosai (god of the sword) walk to new destination with a banner claiming to be invincible. A man by the name Muso Gonnosuke challenged Sasaki, and tried to fight him (He was actually attacking ito, he mixed them up). Ito puts him down quickly and walks on. He comes back more prepared and tries to attack again, but Ito tells Sasaki to fight him instead. Sasaki beats him with his practice sword with ease and walks away. Then, when Muso hears the name of ito, he realizes he’s the god of the sword he’s been looking up to all his life and he’s the reason he left his village to be a swordsmen. He follows them wherever they go and wants to learn from them. A challenger appears to see if Kojiro Sasaki is really invincible and challenges him to a fight with swords. He is easily put down by Sasaki and killed. This is the new life that Kojiro Sasaki will live to become a reknowned swordsman. Ito wants people to approach him and feel the need to prove Sasaki being invincible wrong. This is where Sasaki will test his skills. For a new challenge Sensei Ito brings Kojiro to a battle friend and tells people from the army they are enemies. Just for Kojiro can see what real battle is like. Before the army arrives a swordsman’s comes and asks if they are enemies or not, turns out to be a young takezo. When the soldiers come to kill Kojiro and everyone, Kojiro started to kill the soldiers and takezo comes back and joins in. Gonnosuke also joins in but tries to be just like Kojiro and takezo because he aspires to be like them one day but he’s weak to Kojiro. The volume ends with enemies that look like stragglers from an army. They want to cut down anyone in their way while ito is being kojiro to the forest where he became the best version of himself to survive.

9.5/10 In adolla Sho and Shinra go face to face with Haumea and the evangelist. Haumea merged with the pillars and has all their abilities and became one with the evangelist. She can see into the future and not be touched because the world is about to be destroyed by despair. Adolla is fueled by despair so the world is on its way to the end. Sho tries explaining to Shinra to not be vengeful or angry because those feelings will only lead to more despair. At first Shinra held his ground even after being shot with fire through his torso. Then after one of his Adolla links heals him from earth he can feel the presence of everyone he has ever linked with. Then, as he feels all the links to him, Shinra feels obi’s life end. His doppelganger sneaks behind him and slits his throat. Shinra breaks into a rage and causes the whole earth to be covered by Adolla flames and the Earth becomes and second Sun. The only 3 living earthlings are Haumea, Shinra and sho. Shinra’s rampage ends when he gets bopped on the head and it ends up being Arthur. He survived in space some how just to knock some sense into Shinra and tell him that he is the symbol of hope and he is a hero not a devil. All of a sudden the pulse of hope causes Shinra’s mom to be summoned in her adolla form. And Shinra has the idea from looking at Haumea being one with the evangelist to merge with sho and his mother. The merge turns them into Shinra Bansho man. The battle for hope vs despair in order to safe all mankind is about to take place and the volume ends.

7.5/10 Kojiro takes on Denshichiro Yoshioka head to head but little did Denshichiro know, Kojiro was deaf but talented with a sword. He had the upper hand and caused Kojiro to experience fear in a fight for the first time, but that only made him more determined. Kojiro has a disadvantage because he has a short sword and is used to fighting with a wooden stick, but some how he still stays toe to toe with Denshichiro and is smiling because he enjoys fighting. They end the fight by both brutally slicing each other up to near death and blacking out. Denshichiro speaks about this fight like he reconnected with an old friend and they had a “great discussion and both loved the way of the sword”. After healing up, Kojiro goes with Yagoro (master Jisai’s other desciple) to continue his journey and move on from his life with Jisai. Jisai was afraid he created a monster but really Kojiro was always this way but couldn’t fulfill his potential. Kojiros friend Kusanagi Tenki, formely kamekichi, was entrusted by master Jisai to deliver a certificate of swordsmanship to Kojiro. All the while, Kojiro is going around taking on swordsman and creating a name for himself.

7.5 My review for this volume ended up never uploading and I lost it forever RIP. Basically Kojiro trains with a stick everyday despite his adoptive father/master refusing to show him the way of the sword because his blood lust is too strong. Until he is faced by a group of swordsman during war times that try to antagonize Kojiro and make fun of him for using a stick. He basically showed them up by using his stick and then comes face to face with Denshichiro Yoshioka as he floats about being the second son to kempo Yoshioka.

8/10 More kojiro backstory, the village wants sensei Jisai to kill a sword master “Fudo” . He takes young girls at 14 and makes them his wives or does what he wants with them. Once he hears this jisai accepts little does he know kojiro and his friend are plotting to kill Fudo as well because Fudo sliced off kojiros friends dad hand. Kojiro and his friend get there first and cause a fire as a diversion, he comes out and takes down the friend instantly and while he’s distracted kojiro slices off his hand with the sword Jisai left for him. Then, with one arm, Fudo beats on Kojiro and right before he’s about to kill him Jisai saves the day and fights him off until he slices his neck. Then Kojiro went nuts and kept slicing the dead body, after this Jisai promised himself to never teach Kojiro the way of the sword but he taught kojiros friend. After, kojiro yearned to be trained like him and tried to approach him with a stick just for Jisai would beat him up and maybe he’d pick up something. Then Jisai starts teaching him other sounds and characters used to describe things in life. Trying to teach kojiro to communicate. As Jisai sleeps, Kojiro trains with his heavy stick and continues to train his ways of the sword.

7/10 We are given the real tale of Kojiro Sasaki. He was left to his fathers former master in a boat. His masters name was Jisai Kaneki and he lived by the sword for many years. He awaited korjiro’s arrival but he never came until he saw a boat stranded and realized a baby was in there and he rescued Kojiro from the water. He devoted his life to raising Kojiro. For various years of raising Kojiro, Jisai never realized he was deaf until a former student who stopped by brought it to his attention. From a young age, kojiro loved playing with his masters swords and he always found a way to hold on at any capacity. Once he saw his master slashing his sword towards the water he was in love with swords. Jisai learned to communicate with Kojiro through writing and gestures. He described to kojiro that swords can lead to hurt and pain. The next day Jisai goes to find a fishing job and comes back to Kojiro holding the sword again. Everyday he gave his master/father figure a hard time and looked for the sword. He even attacked Jisai and Jisai disciplined him with physical action. Kojiro even wrote the characters for sword down and jisai was happy he could communicate. Instead, kojiro trained with a stick everyday growing older and older. All the village kids go to jump kojiro and make fun of him, instead kojiro beats them all and makes them kneel to him. While an old man attacks jisai to test if he is strong enough to protect the village. Also a kid name Tenki approaches with a sword and Kojiro runs to get his wooden sword and attacks him smiling. Kojiro beats him down and makes tenki bleed and beg for him to stop. Tenki admits defeat and tries to communicate with Kojiro and asks him to be his master.

8/10 Musashi defeats Kohei Tsujikaze by using his dads style of dual wielding. Kohei first matches takezo’s energy in thirsting for bloodshed, but as he is about to die he realizes the connection he made with the little girl and he pleads for Musashi to save his life, and he does but doesn’t understand why. This puts Mushashi into deep thought about how his mindset is and the way people should think. He needs to control his blood lust. Then we get some background story on how basically Kohei’s brother was part of group of bandits. Kohei was taken in by them and had his life saved by his brother. He thought this was the biggest mistake because his life had no meaning to himself. He was almost raped by a crew member and killed him, but then people looked to blame Kohei but then he pointed out the man was erect when he killed him. Then he tried to kill his brother for causing him to live this life full of killing and thieving, his brother locked him away in basically a stone cage with barely any food or resources. After a war waged on their area, their crew was taken out and the enemies looked inside the cage to have kohei come out and murder a bunch of them. He then ran to a fellow survivor of the crew, and asked where he can find and kill his brother and he was informed his brother is dead and was killed by a young man named takezo.

8/10 Matachi’s uncle and the other person traveling with them gets decimated by a guy who finds out matachi is not the samurai he claims to be and he’s a fraud and he uses the fake kojuro name. Matachi runs away and let’s his companions get murdered until the murderer sees the chain and sickle and decides to face him, he gets destroyed in a instant and the chain and sickle fighter tells matachi to clean the bodies. He cleans the bodies and then sees takezo coming, he runs off again. He isn’t ready to face him. Then, takezo is weak and hungry and asks a person in the area if they can spare food. She informs him that the master of chain and sickle is dead, now a “ghost” roams around. After takezo runs into him, turns out he is the assassin who tried to cut takezo from a tree when the monk was punishing him and tried to kill him, but he changed. He doesn’t use a sword, he uses the chain and sickle. He gives permission to show takezo the way of the chain and sickle but he makes it known he doesn’t intend to kill him. He shows him how he fights and uses it and admits he learned it from the real chain and sickle master and points to the little girl that also uses the chain and sickle. Turns out she was the original masters daughter and she taught him the way of chain and sickle as well.