Chapter Summaries

Baku, Shiraki, Akagi, and Kaji began Q Dalang’s escape gamble in Ninefold Tower, where Q had laid traps to stop them. After Kaji nearly fell into concealed steel wires, Shiraki saved him, and the group headed upstairs toward the sixth floor.

• Akagi and Shiraki agreed to join the gamble, and Yagyou explained that Q Dalang would face two teams racing to escape Ninefold Tower.
• The group found the fifth-floor elevator disabled and gathered at the stairwell.
• Kaji stumbled toward a hidden steel-wire trap, but Shiraki caught him before he fell into it.
• Shiraki and Akagi explained that they had sensed danger below, while Kaji realized the gamble could cost them their lives.
• Shiraki led Kaji, Baku, and Akagi upstairs toward the sixth floor because the trapped stairs below blocked their way.

Q Dalang sent four armed mercenaries to hunt the group on the rooftop while Yagyou warned him not to underestimate extraordinary strength. As the mercenaries opened their attack, Shiraki Uke emerged from behind the rooftop door and struck one of them with a devastating uppercut.

• Yagyou told Q Dalang that his hunt had become too one-sided, but Q Dalang dismissed the warning and summoned four armed mercenaries.
• Q Dalang ordered the mercenaries to split into teams, with one attacking from the rooftop entrance and the other climbing up to ambush the group.
• Takaomi Kaji carried the exhausted Baku Madarame up to the rooftop, where Baku told him to jump to the neighboring building.
• Shiraki Uke and Akagi Shigeru discussed whether they could leap between buildings, startling Baku with their apparent seriousness.
• Two mercenaries entered the rooftop and searched for the group, but Shiraki Uke appeared from behind the door and knocked one unconscious with a powerful uppercut.

Shiraki Uke fought off the mercenaries on the rooftop while Takaomi Kaji briefly seized a real pistol and Baku Madarame tried to negotiate. The mercenaries regained control with reinforcements, but when one fired at Shiraki Uke, the shot destroyed the gunman’s hand instead, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Shiraki Uke knocked out one mercenary’s pistol and disarmed another, while Takaomi Kaji picked up the fallen M9 but dropped it after being frightened by a mercenary’s roar.
• A mercenary surrendered and revealed the building’s traps, but he used the conversation to stall until two more mercenaries climbed onto the rooftop with submachine guns.
• The mercenaries trained their weapons on Shiraki Uke, Akagi Shigeru, Baku Madarame, and Takaomi Kaji, and Baku Madarame offered them the group’s wager winnings in exchange for safe passage.
• The injured mercenary recovered, drew his pistol, and fired at Shiraki Uke, but the shot mangled the mercenary’s hand while Shiraki Uke remained unharmed and struck him again.

Q Dalang’s mercenaries were driven from the rooftop by sniper fire, and Yagyou identified the hired shooter as a member of the Kure Clan. The four targets regrouped on the tower’s seventh floor, while Baku Madarame considered the new opportunities in the escalating gamble.

• Q Dalang celebrated the mercenaries’ attack until Yagyou recognized that the gunshot had come from a sniper rifle outside the tower.
• A sniper wounded a mercenary, forcing the team to retreat inside; Q Dalang learned the four targets had gone downstairs and that the mercenaries had lost an M9 pistol.
• Q Dalang demanded that Kakerou stop the sniper, but Yagyou explained that the opposing side had hired a Kure Clan assassin and that the gamble had no limit on participants.
• Takaomi Kaji, Shiraki Uke, Akagi Shigeru, and Baku Madarame regrouped on the seventh floor as Kure Fusui remained on the phone with Shiraki.
• Baku Madarame rubbed his pickled plum and wondered whether the growing number of participants created new opportunities in the gamble.

Shiraki Uke and the others planned how to survive the mercenaries pursuing them through the trapped building, while Akagi Shigeru and Baku Madarame explained why Q Dalang’s cruelty could give them an opening. Kure Fusui continued providing sniper support and refused Yagyou’s request to stay out of the gamble, leaving Q Dalang furious and threatening the Kure Clan.

• Shiraki Uke and his companions cleared traps on the sixth floor as Baku Madarame praised Uke’s connection to the Kure Clan and warned that Fusui could only support them from outside.
• Takaomi Kaji questioned whether they could escape, and Akagi Shigeru reassured him by explaining that Q Dalang’s desire to prolong his victims’ suffering made him predictable.
• Baku Madarame described Q Dalang as bait whose personal desires would create openings, then asked Akagi why he had joined the gamble; Akagi said he cared only about pursuing victory.
• Kure Fusui warned Shiraki Uke that the mercenaries had reached the seventh floor and were coming down to the sixth, while she observed their equipment and movements from her rooftop position.
• Yagyou asked Kure Fusui not to interfere in the gamble, but she refused and challenged Q Dalang’s claim to be a professional gambler.
• Q Dalang angrily struck his cane against a desk and threatened to target Kure Fusui and the Kure Clan after dealing with the four participants.

Shiraki Uke used the tear gas and the mercenaries’ restricted vision to get among them, setting up a close-range attack. The four mercenaries realized he was beside them, while Shiraki held his breath and prepared to strike in the darkness.

• Q Dalang ordered the four mercenaries to avoid the southwest windows and kill the people inside.
• The mercenaries searched the sixth floor and found Akagi Shigeru, who fired his M9 at them.
• The mercenaries threw tear-gas grenades, but Takaomi Kaji and Baku Madarame broke a window and blew the smoke back toward them.
• Shiraki Uke used the smoke and the mercenaries’ limited vision to move into their midst.
• The mercenaries sensed Shiraki beside them as he held his breath and focused, with only seconds to act.

Q Dalang revealed that he intended to send the Masked Man, Lodem, to kill again after the mercenaries were defeated. He recounted his past victim Hojo Ryo and prepared to replace his skull with the skulls of the new victims.

• Q Dalang went to a wall in his fifth-floor office where a real human skull hung.
• Q Dalang told Yagyou that the skull belonged to Hojo Ryo, the only man who had let him enjoy an entire gambling match.
• Q Dalang split Hojo Ryo’s skull with his cane sword and said he would hang the new victims’ skulls there instead.
• Q Dalang began addressing Mr. Yagyou.

Q Dalang awakened the violent Lodem and sent him to hunt the people in the building. Lodem headed for the sixth floor, where the mercenaries were already defeated, and one of them warned Q Dalang that the intruders were exceptionally strong.

• Q Dalang learned that his opponent was Baku Madarame, known as Usogui, and vowed to defeat him and rise to the top of Kakerou.
• Shiraki Uke and the others subdued the four mercenaries on the sixth floor, took their equipment, and used the slick-haired mercenary to guide them down toward the fourth floor.
• Q Dalang injected the sleeping Masked Man, whose identity shifted from Maruk to Lodem, and Lodem tore apart his Thumb Cuffs.
• Q Dalang ordered Lodem to kill everyone in the building, and Lodem burst through the office door and clung to the concrete wall with one hand.
• A short mercenary on the sixth floor woke and protested Q Dalang's decision to send Lodem, warning that Shiraki Uke and the others were extremely cautious and strong.
• Q Dalang dismissed the mercenary's objections and told him to be grateful for the extra man.

Lodem burst into the fourth-floor room by swinging down the building’s exterior and killed the slicked-back-haired mercenary with a flying kick. Shiraki Uke, Akagi Shigeru, Baku Madarame, and Takaomi Kaji faced him, while Baku and Akagi reacted with excitement.

• Lodem killed the short mercenary and crushed the heads of two unconscious mercenaries on Q Dalang’s orders.
• Shiraki Uke, Akagi Shigeru, Baku Madarame, and Takaomi Kaji heard the sixth-floor mercenary’s final call and learned that the masked man was hunting them.
• Kure Fusui spotted Lodem leap from the roof, swing down the building on a cable, and warned Shiraki to move.
• Lodem smashed through a fourth-floor window and kicked the slicked-back-haired mercenary into a wall, killing him.
• Takaomi Kaji saw Baku Madarame and Akagi Shigeru stare at Lodem, then heard them say they were having fun.

Shiraki Uke challenged Lodem after Lodem dodged a mercenary’s gunfire and killed him on Q Dalang’s order. Baku Madarame and Akagi Shigeru ran with Takaomi Kaji, leaving Shiraki to face Lodem, while Baku insisted he still intended to win.

• A dying slick-haired mercenary grabbed Takaomi Kaji’s fallen submachine gun and fired at Lodem, who evaded every shot by racing through the stairwell.
• After Lodem counted the bullets and dodged the mercenary’s final shots, Q Dalang ordered him to finish the man, and Lodem crushed his head against a concrete wall with a kick.
• Q Dalang taunted the hidden survivors and urged them to run, but Akagi Shigeru and Shiraki Uke stepped out of hiding.
• Shiraki Uke challenged Lodem to fight, while Baku Madarame, Akagi Shigeru, and Takaomi Kaji ran toward the stairwell.
• Baku told Takaomi that they would only get in the fighters’ way and reaffirmed that he had come to the building to win.

Yagyou reflected on the importance of martial strength in gambling and wondered how Baku Madarame’s side had become so weak. The chapter ended with him tracing Baku’s decline back to the day he defied his superior.

• Baku Madarame urged Takaomi Kaji to stay and watch an old man regret his choices, while Akagi Shigeru said the gamble would become more interesting.
• Shiraki Uke attacked Lodem with a powerful punch and elbow, but Lodem caught the punch and cut Shiraki’s forearm with his dagger.
• Yagyou watched the fight as Q Dalang explained that his son Maruk’s experiments and a syringe-triggered second personality had created Lodem.
• Yagyou wondered whether Shiraki’s strength could defeat Lodem’s brutal martial strength.
• Yagyou considered the role of martial strength in gambling and questioned how Baku Madarame’s side had fallen so far, concluding it began when Baku defied his superior.

Yagyou suspected Baku Madarame had planned for the overthrow gamble’s aftermath, while Baku and his companions tried to outmaneuver Q Dalang and reach his office. Lodem overwhelmed Shiraki Uke, who began to perceive a new master and a new path to strength.

• Yagyou found a pen-shaped listening device and wondered whether Baku had deliberately entered the gamble as part of a larger trap.
• Baku proposed rushing to Q Dalang’s fifth-floor office while Uke kept Lodem occupied, but he heard Q Dalang direct Lodem to intercept them.
• Akagi Shigeru deduced that Q Dalang had hidden trackers in the coins the gamblers carried, allowing Baku to identify the source of their pursuer’s information.
• Lodem struck Uke through the corridor and sent him crashing into a wall as Baku, Akagi Shigeru, and Takaomi Kaji hurried out of his way.
• Under extreme pressure, Uke saw Ryu signal a burly apparition, and he began to perceive a new master and different fists to learn from.

Yagyou watched Shiraki Uke shift into a style blending wrestling and pro wrestling as he fought Lodem. After Shiraki ran to the sixth floor, Lodem attacked with a submachine gun, forcing Shiraki to recognize the gamble as a fight to the death where anything could happen.

• Yagyou retrieved his pen-shaped listening device and realized Baku Madarame had planned his visit to Q Dalang’s building in advance.
• Shiraki Uke stunned Lodem with a Russian Double Palm Chop and slammed his head into a concrete wall with a Capture German Suplex.
• Shiraki ran up to the sixth floor, with Lodem chasing him, while Q Dalang ordered Lodem to drive him into a dead end.
• Lodem opened fire on Shiraki with a submachine gun, and Shiraki dodged the bullets by darting into a corner.

Shiraki Uke survived Lodem’s flying kick by clinging to the outside of the tower, while Kure Fusui covered him with her sniper rifle. After drawing on Zangief’s encouragement, Shiraki recovered and returned to the building, where Lodem waited in a sniper blind spot.

• Lodem kicked Shiraki Uke through a window, and Q Dalang ordered Lodem to approach carefully and confirm what had happened to him.
• Lodem dodged a shot from Kure Fusui, and Q Dalang realized a Kure Clan sniper was covering the tower.
• Kure Fusui spotted Shiraki Uke clinging to the outside of the window and warned him that Lodem might be nearby.
• Shiraki Uke fought off dizziness, drew encouragement from an apparition of Zangief, and pushed himself back inside.
• Shiraki Uke straightened his broken nose and faced Lodem, saying he still needed time to get used to Zangief’s feeling.

Baku Madarame used a hidden listening device to unsettle Q Dalang, who confronted referee Yagyou while Lodem prepared to attack. Baku and Akagi stalled for time as Shiraki Uke continued to warm up, leaving the outcome dependent on luck.

• Lodem warned Q Dalang that Shiraki Uke was becoming dangerous, then dodged a shot from Akagi Shigeru as Akagi, Baku Madarame, and Takaomi Kaji appeared in the sixth-floor corridor.
• Q Dalang ordered Lodem to kill Baku, Akagi, and Kaji, while Baku explained that they were buying Shiraki Uke time to adjust.
• Baku revealed that he knew Q Dalang's plans because a listening device had been hidden in a pen.
• Q Dalang broke the pen and accused Yagyou of favoring Baku, but Yagyou insisted the gamble had no rules and reminded Q Dalang that he was free to act as he pleased.
• Q Dalang ordered Lodem to attack, while Baku and Akagi prepared to stall him and Shiraki Uke remained motionless behind Lodem.
• On the fifth floor, Q Dalang grew increasingly ferocious as he believed Baku had underestimated him.

Baku Madarame, Akagi Shigeru, Takaomi Kaji, and Shiraki Uke disabled Lodem with acid and struck back, while Q Dalang watched through a camera. As Lodem faced death, he briefly remembered his childhood as Maruk and how mercenaries had taken him away.

• Baku Madarame and Akagi Shigeru's gunpowder trap sent stones flying, but Lodem shielded himself with mercenary corpses.
• Lodem threw the bodies into a hidden steel-wire trap, which sliced them apart and drenched Akagi Shigeru, Baku Madarame, and Takaomi Kaji in blood.
• Lodem's instincts drew his attention to Shiraki Uke, while dust from the corpses and acid fumes blinded and weakened him.
• Shiraki Uke sprang up and hit Lodem with a Zangief's Spinning Lariat Kick, and Akagi Shigeru fired at him as the camera broke.
• As the shot's flash filled his blurred vision, Lodem briefly remembered his childhood as Maruk and the mercenary who took him from the ruins.

Q Dalang tried to kill Yagyou and then offered Akagi Shigeru an alliance to kill Usogui, but Akagi rejected his way of thinking about gambling. Baku Madarame arrived with Takaomi Kaji as Shiraki Uke held Q Dalang aloft.

• Q Dalang attacked Yagyou with his sword cane, but Yagyou caught the blade and disarmed him with ease.
• Akagi Shigeru returned to the fifth-floor office to keep gambling, and Shiraki Uke stopped Q Dalang from retrieving his sword cane.
• Q Dalang offered Akagi and Shiraki his Kakerou membership, property, and connections in exchange for joining forces against Usogui.
• Q Dalang revealed that Lodem was a test subject taken from a war-zone village, not his son, and Shiraki told him that he and Kure Fusui considered him trash.
• Akagi rejected Q Dalang’s offer, and Baku Madarame arrived with Takaomi Kaji and told Shiraki to put Q down.

Baku Madarame forced Q Dalang out of the office and let him flee while Shiraki Uke prepared for the threat Q Dalang had left behind. Q Dalang discovered that the supposedly dead Lodem was alive, but his attempt to turn Lodem against the others backfired when Lodem hunted him instead.

• Baku Madarame made Q Dalang leave the office at gunpoint and challenged him to escape the building.
• Shiraki Uke warmed up while explaining that the danger Q Dalang had left behind was harder to handle than Q Dalang himself.
• Q Dalang reached a hidden sixth-floor cache and found a tracker display showing Lodem on the fifth floor.
• Q Dalang contacted Lodem, learned he was alive and injured, and ordered him to kill everyone on the fifth floor.
• Lodem charged toward Q Dalang on the sixth floor, nearly hit him with a devastating punch, and pursued him as he fled.
• Q Dalang used iron racks to block Lodem, but two bullets fired through a window deafened Lodem and sent him charging forward again.

Shiraki Uke and the others learned that Q Dalang had died while Maruk, confused by the truth about his past, went on a rampage. Shiraki Uke faced Maruk on the sixth floor and urged him to think about how to live, as Maruk recalled Q Dalang’s lessons to kill.

• Kure Fusui shot Q Dalang to prevent him from speaking, while Shiraki Uke realized Maruk had replaced Lodem.
• Maruk heard that Q Dalang had killed villagers and used him as a human experiment, then struggled to understand who he was.
• Q Dalang fled from Maruk in terror, jumped from the sixth floor, and died.
• Maruk broke down and smashed the walls around him as Baku Madarame and Yagyou listened from the fifth floor.
• Akagi Shigeru sent Shiraki Uke to confront the rampaging Maruk.
• Shiraki Uke met Maruk on the sixth floor and asked him to think about how to live.

Shiraki Uke fought Maruk as Lodem’s violent personality fought for control, then helped Maruk recognize that strength did not mean killing. Maruk chose to atone and fight Shiraki, but they fell together from a sixth-floor window, leaving their survival uncertain.

• Maruk accused Shiraki Uke and his father of being liars and attacked, but Shiraki countered with Zangief’s Siberian Blizzard.
• As Lodem took control and attacked, Shiraki threw him with Borscht Dynamite, then endured Lodem’s counterpunch and barrage.
• Maruk regained control and said he did not want to kill anyone, so Shiraki countered his attacks and told him that true strength was different from Q Dalang’s deception.
• Maruk saw Baku Madarame, Akagi Shigeru, Takaomi Kaji, and Higashi Kōichi watching and felt reassured, then said he wanted to beat Shiraki.
• Shiraki stomped Maruk’s foot and drove him backward through a sixth-floor window, and Akagi, Yagyou, and Baku headed toward it as Takaomi protested.