Manga Underground v3.1

Gunslinger Girl 51-56
After Angelica’s death, all the handlers are understandably nervous, none more so than Hilscher, who loves Triela far more than he lets on. Back in Naples after a year, he now reflects more and more on Triela’s dependence on the medicine-and what will happen without it.
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A new contract comes up, and Hilscher decides not to trouble Triela with it. Instead, he goes to the Oriental Hotel himself and does the job, instructing Triela beforehand to stay put and be a good girl. He completes the job, but returns wounded.

As he walks past Triela, she smells blood on him and tries to take a look. He tries to brush her way but she latches on to his arm. Peering over it, she manages to get a look at his wound. Shocked, she demands an explanation from him. She asks him why he did not let her go along with him. He answers that her task is not to fight, but to live on and be happy. Triela starts crying at this, and runs way. Hilscher tries to follow, but collapses in the doorway. Only then does he notice that Triela hasn’t taken her medicine.

As she wanders the streets of Naples, she is sighted by Camorra from Sicily, whose bosses she had taken out (cf. Volume 9). They corner her in an alley, and she runs from them. However, due to the medicine, she falters and eventually reaches another place to hide. However, the goons manage to catch her easily and attack her. She beats off one of the attacker, but the other manages to capture her. As they celebrate their good luck, Roberta Guellfi passes by in her car and sees what’s going on. She draws a gun at the goons and orders them to leave. As they look at each other, Triela rushes out from between them and gets into the car.

Roberta drives Triela to her safe house, telling her that she has comes to Naples on another legal problem. As they get off, Mimi opens and door and rushes out to greet them. Inside, Triela also comes face to face with Mario Bossi from one year ago.

As Triela suffers the aftershocks of her withdrawal, Mario and Roberta talk in the kitchen. Roberta asks him how long he has known Triela. Mario goes silent, then leaves the kitchen, asking Mimi to step out so he can talk to Triela.

He begins by asking her why she went out without Hilscher’s permission. Triela doesn’t answer; instead she asks him about Hilscher’s past–and his connection with herself. Shocked, Mario is speechless for a moment, then regains his composure as she tells him that she will die soon anyway. Slowly, he begins to tell the story of 6 years ago, when Hilscher was in Europol and had taken it upon himself to break down a child smuggling ring in Amsterdam. He and his partner Rachelle had stormed into the warehouse the children were being used to make snuff films. There, his partner had gotten shot. In spite of her great pain, she had soldiered on, reaching the snuff film set, and in great pain, saving a little girl’s life. Then she died, leaving Hilscher in charge of her. In the end, Mario tells her that that girl was her.nbsp;

Then he begins telling Triela how they had managed to escape the warehouse, her subsequent hospitalization, and how Hilscher had pulled every string in the book to get her out of Amsterdam, eventually agreeing even to give her up to the Social Welfare Agency, which turned her into a cyborg.

As she hears the story, Triela finds that she is crying. Suddenly, the phone rings. As Mario picks it up, he recognizes the voice of Hilscher and tells him that Triela is with him. Then he tells Triela that he is coming to pick her up.

Meanwhile, Mimi and Roberta are sitting on the stairs, the former wondering about her friend’s doomed romance. Suddenly, Hilscher appears before them and asks if Triela is there. As she opens the door, he tells her that they will go back to Rome together.

Roberta drops them off near and the hotel and bids them goodbye. As they start walking, Hilscher suddenly collapses, his painkiller wearing off at last. When they reach the hotel room, he asks her to clean the wound and take the bullet out. But he refuses to take anasthesia, lest she run out on him again. As she goes to work on him, he tells her about his dreams for her, his expectations, hopes and wishes. He also tells her about the risks he has taken, and the devil’s contracts he has made with sundry villains.

Breaking down, Triela asks why, even though she is such a burden to him, he continued to let her live. He does not answer; he just says ‘Sorry’, then faints. Troubled to the point of despair, Triela decides to end her life (?) and tries to run away. But the memory of her interview with the inspectors (way back in the series, Ch.5-6, I think) forces her to come back to him. She hugs him, then kisses him and vows to live-and die-with him.

Claymore ch. 88
The Demons converge on the place where Helen and Deneve are fighting the Abyssal Isley of the North. As they appear before her, Helen tries to cut through one of them, but soon realizes her mistake when she is pierced through by the hideous creature’s organic blades. Deneve, ever the colder one, rushes to her aid and holds the monster off until Helen can regenerate. As she does so, the new Claymore (from two chapters ago) beats it off and tells them to stay absolutely quiet and not move a muscle. True to form, the monster comes close to them, then moves away, finding no movement.

Safe for the moment, they discuss as to the true nature of the demons. The new Claymore tells them that these demons are actually beings created by the Organization to hunt down the Abyssal Ones. These demons, she says, are actually the carcasses of awakened Claymores who were stripped of her humanity and are used for one purpose alone: to find and destroy Isley, whose taste has been pounded into them.

As they speak, Isley fights the demons in his awakened form. He manages to kill three of them, only to find that they regenerate. Stunned, he pierces one with his lance, but finds to his shock that it simply starts curling around his lance. He shakes it off, only to find more of them coming his way, killing him their only objective. He shoots off a bunch of arrows, which causes a huge explosion. As Helen, Deneve and the newbie flee from the blast, the two older Claymores ask her if it will be enough to kill them. She replies in the negative, and tells them that they had better stay downwind and not get involved.

Sure enough, the Demons are not dead; they reemerge and arise again. Then the newbie tells her older sisters these creatures’ name: the Abyss Feeders.nbsp;

Bleach ch. 344
As Ishida burns Yammy, the Arrancar tells him that he will not be stopped by this. Ishida smiles, and tells him it is his bad luck. The ground caves in from under Yammy’s feet and tumbles down a long height.

The Quincy now turns to Ichigo, and tells him that he has come on Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s orders, and that he has taken out all the columns on all the floors beneath them, thus sending Yammy hurtling down to certain death. Ichigo smiles at him, and tells him to protect Inoue, with his life if necessary. He then resumes his battle with Ulquiorra, transforming into hollow form to get advanced powers. But Ulquiorra evades him, and jumps out through a hole in the wall of the central dome.

As Ichigo follows him to the roof of the dome, he asks why Ulquiorra has led him there. In reply, the Arrancar tells him that espada above Quattro cannot release their power inside the dome. Then he unleashes his full power.

Naruto ch. 434
As Naruto and his shadow clones prepare to attack God Realm Pain, the insidious Akatsuki beats him to the punch by using his powers on the clones and destroying one of them, quartering Naruto’s chakra and forcing him to attack himself. But the frogs stop him, and attack them in his stead. Pain, now fully charged, scatters them like a breeze. Finding no choice, Naruto decides to attack.

On other parts of Konoha, the ninjas are wakened to the sound of the ongoing battle, and are told by Katsuyu that Naruto is fighting Pain. Alarmed, Hinata tries to run to his aid, but Neji stops her and tells her she will only be a hindrance.

As Naruto gathers his chakra, he is suddenly possessed by Pain, and finds himself dragged to him against his will. Abruptly, he is hammerlocked by the Demon Realm Pain, who begins to suck his chakra out. God Realm Pain tells him that he will not kill him; rather, he will use him as a host.nbsp;