Manga / Juujika no Rokunin

I won't let anyone take this revenge away from me

Juujika no Rokunin (十字架のろくにん) is a psychological thriller shonen manga by Shiryu Nakatake, which began serialization in Magazine Pocket in March 2020.

So you believe that School Bullying Is Harmless? Or that not all Kids Are Cruel? Perhaps the bullies themselves have a Freudian Excuse that made them the way they are and will mature out of it after realizing what a jerk they've been and apologize to the kid they use to torment.

This...is definitely NOT that story.

To say that the protagonist Shun Uruma's life is a living hell is an Understatement. He's brutally tormented by five of his classmates, led by Kyou Shigoku. Why do they bully Uruma so badly? To see how much he can take before he can be Driven to Suicide. That and for their own sick, twisted pleasure. Did we mention that Uruma and said bullies are only 12 years old?! But Uruma puts in a brave face for the sake of his loving parents and little brother Kakeru, believing the bullies would eventually stop and leave him alone.

But the bullies soon do the unthinkable. When Uruma's family goes out on a drive, some of the bullies run into their favorite punching bag, casually give him a phone, and through the other line, the ringleader reveals what's in store for Uruma. Kyou pushes one of his underlings in front of Uruma's family car, immediately leading to a deadly crash and kills the parents on board. Then Kyou opens the door and beats Kakeru bloody with a rock. And he finally decides to sets the car wreck on fire for extra measure.

The only good news out of this is that miraculous, Kakeru somehow managed to survive the ordeal despite his deadly burns and severe head fractures. The bad news? He's been beaten into a coma; the doctors themselves are not sure if or when he'll wake up. Scared and alone, Uruma moves in with his grandfather and discovers he's a WWII veteran and served in a secret unit of the Imperial Army.

In his grief and rage, he can take no more of his bullies evil deeds any longer and decides to enact his revenge on them and kill them all for driving him to the edge and to avenge his fallen family. He begs his grandfather to guide him through the path of vengeance and train him in the ways he has been trained back in his war days. Four years later, Uruma's training is done, his grandfather has taught him all there is to know and he's now out for blood against all that have wronged him.

And all of this is only the FIRST chapter!

Then things get more and more dark and brutal as time goes on while The Hunter Becomes the Hunted.

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Juujika no Rokunin provides examples of:

• An Aesop: It's rather subtle, if not for its entire Nightmare Fuel premise.
  • Respect and obey The Golden Rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated, or else you'll invoke the wrath of a revenge-fulled psycho.
  • Even if you're enrage at someone and want revenge, you should still go to the police if a serious crime is involved with the offender and not take matters into your own hands. Worst case scenario is that YOU will be punished while the offender will be let off the hook. Uruma's grandfather points this out, but his grandson still swears to never let anyone take away his chance at vengeance against those that destroyed their family. So gramps agrees to train him, just as long as he doesn't get caught. Which brings us to the next topic...
  • Turn the Other Cheek against someone you have beef with. Gramps makes his grandson promise to refrain from killing those who have either redeemed themselves or are innocent from the beginning.
• Asshole Victim: Whenever Uruma gets his revenge on his bullies, you can definitely expect the fandom to rejoice. And they definitely had it coming.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Senkouji would often kill bugs by jamming them into his BB gun and shooting into the air, much to Uruma's horror. It's because of this that he believes that Senkouji was the one that may have killed a stray kitten that he was secretly taken care of. He later kidnaps Uruma and shows him a stray cat he was looking after and had just saved from being run over, then snaps its neck and shoot at its corpse with a nail gun.
  • Kyou is just as bad, as in later chapters, he holds onto a crow as he's plucking off its feathers, before strangling it to death.
• Bad "Bad Acting": When Uruma's practicing his lines for Romeo, the results are... terrible to say the least. He seems to grown out of it when around his co-star, Kaname.
• Big Bad: Kyou Shigoku. He's the ringleader of the bullies and it's because of his brainwashing that driven them into such a state.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Yuuga is very popular at his school, with most of his classmates have nothing but nice things to say about him when Uruma comes over and interviews them. But underneath it all, he's a gangster and pimp and has also kidnapped his girlfriend as a Sex Slave.
  • Senkouji approaches Uruma one day because he wanted to make amends to him for all of his bullying even bringing up their old friendship before they met Kyou. He even saves a stray cat from being run over. But it was all a ruse so that he can kidnap and murder him.
• Bridal Carry: Uruma does this to Anna's corpse after killing off Kuga and Anzai Zenichi as he goes to dispose ALL their corpses.
• Bullying a Dragon: This trope didn't come into effect during the early parts of the manga. In addition, Uruma is the dragon in this case as the bullies would pick on him VERY OFTEN. Too bad it would result in their deaths though...
• Bully Brutality: All five of the bullies applied to this trope but arguably Kuga is the worst of them all. He's captain of the school's Judo team and he bullies his teammates. His favorite pastimes are breaking their fingers and raping the female classmates. When one boy is dismayed at his girlfriend's suffering in his hands, Kuga suddenly appears before the poor guy and breaks his arm. Then there's poor, poor Anna, a childhood friend who believes she can change him with her love. Kuga doesn't care.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Azuma freaks out when she sees that her crush, Uruma, gets a letter from his locker. She fears that it's a love letter and secretly follows him. Turns out she had every right to worry when it's revealed that Uruma received the letter from Kaname, the most popular and most beautiful girl at their school AND she and her twin brother, Jun, were friends with Uruma from their old elementary school days.
  • Azuma then goes Demon Head mode and shatters the wall she was gripping when Uruma accidentally gropes Kaname's chest because Jun pushes the two together. Her jealous rage was so strong, Uruma can actually sense it as killing intent! In later chapters shows her visibly lamenting when Uruma and Kaname are both chosen as the class committees for their upcoming School Festival and are again chosen for the lead roles of Romeo and Juliet, especially freaking out over the kiss scene. Azuma later secretly spies on them when they practice their lines alone and overhears Kaname's Love Confession towards Uruma, leaving her seething with fury.
• The Dog Bites Back: The entire premise. Definitely.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Why did Kyou spearheaded the murder of Uruma's parents and personally cripple Kakeru into a coma? Because Uruma switched schools while his gang were in the middle of their own experiment to see if they can torment him into committing suicide. Keep in mind, this is AFTER Uruma kept his mouth shut about name checking the bullies so they wouldn't get in trouble and he would be forced to take their fake apologies! Ungrateful Bastard much?
• Enfant Terrible: The five bullies torture Uruma for shits and giggles and later conspire to murder his parents and little brother, yet he managed to survive but is in a comatose state. And they're only 12 years old at the start of the story.
• For the Evulz: The five bullies have no other reason to brutally torment Uruma or everyone else than for their own sick amusement.
• Hate Sink: Given that all of the five bullies have tortured Uruma when they were of 12 years old, this trope does not come off as a surprise to anyone. Asides from their mistreatment of their victim, many of the readers have expected the characters to have some character development and grow up to be normal adults... was that the case? NOPE. Instead, they even went as far as murdering Uruma's parents and putting his younger brother into a comatose state, all because he decided to transfer schools while the bullies wanted to study how much torture he can take until he's Driven to Suicide. What is even worse is that not only do they fail to understand the impact of their actions, but they also grow up into criminals who would make random people's lives worse, just for kicks. From committing acts of animal cruelty to sexual assault, it also does not come off as surprising whenever Uruma kills any of his bullies after torturing them SEVERELY. Because of this, none of the audience would ever feel bad when those bullies were ever given a Karmic Death at the hands of the boy they abused.
  • EVERY SINGLE VILLAIN IN THE SERIES. None of them have any sympathetic traits, and even if they do, those traits don't serve as an excuse for their crimes.
  • The Revolution Club as a whole counts.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Uruma towards all the bullies that have terrorized him and ruined his family.
• I'll Be in My Bunk: Kaname suddenly approaches Uruma and Madoka's confrontation, concerted for the former's wellbeing. Upon seeing her, Madoka immediately runs off. A couple of panels reveals why. He has a massive crush on her and ran home so he can pleasure himself with the images of Kaname still fresh on his mind. While at the same time making a Nightmare Face because he's mad as hell at Uruma for being on good terms with Kaname.
• It's Personal: Rather than get the police involved, Uruma is hell-bent on getting his revenge on the bullies and kill each of them himself because of what they did to his family.
• Kids Are Cruel: Oooooh boy. BIG TIME!
• Kick the Dog: And kill the kittens and/or cats too! The five bullies practically BREATH this trope and relish in all its bloody glory.
• Locker Mail: Uruma's reaction to receiving a letter in his locker is confusion as to who would want to send him a letter.
• Perspective Flip: An interesting variation. While most characters get to have their fair share of their stories, this is typically downplayed as they don't ever reveal how they think of other people. However, this is not the case with both Uruma and Anzai. From Uruma's perspective, he himself is a normal kid who is constantly being harassed by Anzai Zenichi, who is more than eager and sinister to have him arrested for his crimes that could have benefited the greater good. However, that is not the case in Anzai's perspective in which he is a serious yet concerned man who only wanted to help Uruma with his issues during his investigation that he ended up failing to do so. Seeing Uruma's kind nature for the first and probably the last time as he stares at a butterfly, he seems more than determined to prevent him from becoming a monster the moment he encounters him again. When Anzai meets Uruma again, he is very concerned and shocked when Uruma (who appears to be more troubled than from the protagonist's perspective) has decided to become a monster like his bullies.
• Rape and Revenge: Uruma makes sure Madoka suffers greatly when finds out that he raped Kaname.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Of the five bullies, three out of the group grow up into savage, brutal rapists.
• Rescue Romance: Azuma falls in love with Uruma when he saved her from a rapist. Little did she know, it was so Uruma can test himself to see if he had the ability to kill. He was right.
• Relative Button: When they're not torturing Uruma, you can expect the five bullies to mock his dead parents and comatose brother. Even when they're at his mercy. Uruma has very "special" treatment for them when they push the button one to many times.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Manga!
• School Idol: Kaname's so popular and revered for her beauty, she's even referred to as "the school Madonna". When she and Uruma Got Volunteered for the lead roles of Romeo and Juliet, a lot of her admirers protested but ultimately agreed in order to keep the peace with the boys and so let Uruma take the part of Romeo.
• Sex for Solace: Still scarred from the memories of her rape from Madoka, Kaname tearfully asks Uruma if he can "overwrite" those memories. In the immediate next panel, the pair commit the deed. Later panels reveal this trope also applied for Uruma, because to him their sex was not only to help ease her trauma but also helped him get over the guilt of secretly killing Anzai. This pushed him into his drive to finally go out and kill Kyou once and for all.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In her Love Confession to Uruma, Kaname reveals she was the original target of the five bullies for reasons unknown. On a rainy day, Uruma meets her after suffering from their torment and comforts her. The two quickly became friends, but this led to Uruma becoming their new target. She transferred to a new school after that but felt great guilt for all he has gone through, but Uruma quickly forgave her nonetheless. She then reveals she has always been in love with him ever since they've met but wishes to hear his feelings once the School Festival is over.
• The Sociopath: All five of the bullies are definitely this, as each of them show all the traits of a typical sociopath. From their lack of remorse for everyone they've tormented, blaming Uruma for all of their troubles when their at fault for bullying him in the first place, sick joys at all that suffer in their hands, and so forth. But their leader Kyou definitely takes the cake. It's no thanks to him that the four other bullies are so evil because of his brainwashing and teachings.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Uruma ironically grows up into this, at least when he's not in his revenge kill-mode. Whenever it comes to ANY sort of intimacy towards girls, he becomes a Nervous Wreck of an Adorkable Shrinking Violet, as if a reminder that behind his hellbent drive for revenge, he's still a virgin and a 16 year old teen with no experience with dating. It's Played for Laughs.
• Stepford Smiler: Kaname essentially takes Uruma on a date with her at a amusement park and later a arcade, happy to be at his company. She proclaims that she's doing fine since they last met and she's over her ordeal from suffering at the hands of Madoka. But it doesn't take long for her to crack and break down, which leads to a Sex for Solace moment with Uruma.
• Teens Are Monsters: What the five bullies eventually graduate into. They have either grown up into rapists, gangsters, or animal killers. For pretty much for most of them, all of the above.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Go ahead and mock the guy who has just kidnapped you while he's showing off his torture devices. And said kidnapper just so happen to be a kid you used to pick on and want revenge for all the bullying he's been put through back in the day. Then you decide to insult his dead parents and little brother that was beaten into a coma. Got a death wish or something?
  • Yuuga. Big time. He's tied to a chair and is at the mercy of Uruma and Karen, a girl he's enslaved and raped. What does he do? Demands that she frees him so that they can kill Uruma together because how dare Uruma free her and torture him for his justified rage, especially after pushing his Relative Button. She didn't want to obey him.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: All over the place. Let's start off with...
  • Your child is bullied horrifically by several of their sociopathic classmates, but the poor kid refuses to name-check any of them. So the child's family next best solution is to move to a new school, the bullies soon conspire to murder the parents and beat the youngest child of the family into a coma.
  • A high-school aged girl named Karen has gone missing for an entire year. Little does the general public knows, she's held captive as a Sex Slave by her own sociopathic boyfriend, who's a gangster and runs a teen prostitution ring. Then Karen commits suicide after Uruma has freed her, but she believes she can never go back to her former life after what she's been put through. Imagine what her parents must have been put through while searching endlessly for her.
• Villainous Crush: Madoka has a massive, disturbing crush on Kaname, who he and the four other bullies used to torment as kids, but she only has eyes for Uruma. Madoka couldn't care less.
• Villains Want Mercy: Once they're at his clutches, you can expect the bullies to plead with Uruma to stop torturing them and let them live. You can expect THAT to always backfire in the most gruesome possible way.
• World of Jerkass: Almost every character in this series is this. From murderers to bullies, it shows that this world isn't a great place to live in...
• Yandere:
  • Yuuga kidnaps and rapes his girlfriend, a young girl named Karen, all because he wants her for himself.
  • Madoka is this towards Kaname, seething with rage when he sees her with Uruma, as he's in the middle of pleasuring himself with the self image of Kaname. He even goes as far as to rape her and threading to stab her to death if she didn't stop trying to fight him off. Unfortunately for him, Uruma comes after him and makes sure he suffers horrifically for what he did to Kaname.