Episode 9: FUSER | DURRUN by Aito Kitazaki

Episode 9

Chained and surrounded, Soujun slides back into the frightened version of himself and begs. The contrast is the point of the episode. In monster form everything runs high: the world slows, his body goes light, his strength is absurd, and pain barely registers. This time he is in that form and thinking clearly, which is wrong — and Yu-ri’s old line about the Nue taking his mind comes back to him. Then the pain arrives all at once. Gejirow sets his terms: the head’s word is law, and for the punch he took, Soujun will cut off his own chained leg. Utaki refuses on his behalf, loudly, furious at the men who wrecked the trip she had been dreaming of. Her brother listens and remembers what he decided after dying once: no more risks, because someone has to be protected. His mother’s voice argues the other way — that taking no risk is the greatest risk of all. The engine still will not start, and he is not even out of fuel. Ojiki once told him to look at his own body honestly, so he does: a car with terrible mileage. Which is when he remembers a delivery bike stalling on a hill and starting again on nothing but willpower. He says the word. DURRUN. The engine catches, the overheating from that two-tonne lift lets go, and the man who cannot be hurt becomes a flail in his hands, swung on his own chains until every last one of the GEJI-GUMI is in the air.