Tear Jerker / Maria no Danzai

Maria Akeboshi, loving school nurse?
Or Mari Nagare, grieving mother fueled by revenge?

Given the nature of Maria no Danzai, which is a story about a son being killed by bullies and his mother leaving her husband to seek revenge, it's going to be a given that this story will leave the reader in tears.

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In General

General

• The Nagare family was once a happy family of a father, a mother, and a son; the three had a great relationship. But then it's revealed that the son Kiritaka is being bullied; the bullying he suffers is beyond normal bullying, being closer to inhumane torture. Eventually, he is killed, and his death is ruled as suicide, with it being blamed on abuse from his parents. The mother Mari discovers the truth of Kiritaka's death, and that the bullies framed his death as suicide; she snaps, leaves her husband, and throws away her life in the name of revenge. The father Taiichiro has his life destroyed by Mari leaving him, and he believes his son's suicide was his own fault for his neglect. He has become an outcast with his colleagues because of rumors of him abusing his son, with him only having one friend. Okaya's gang destroyed a once happy family without remorse, and they continue to ruin their classmates' lives without remorse in the present.
  • Mari Nagare/Maria Akeboshi is a broken woman who was destroyed by her son's death. She was once happily married and had a loving relationship with her son and husband. She has dreams of being a school nurse but put that on hold to be a mother to her son, and it's clear that she has no regrets about letting go of that dream for her son. It was revealed that she grew up an orphan and was bullied, but a school nurse showed her kindness, and that kindness positively affected her. She grew up to be a mother and a housewife and was happy with her life. Then she saw her beloved son die and could do nothing but hold his crushed body. A police investigation told her that her son's death was a suicide because of abusive parents, leaving her heartbroken. Then she read her son's journal and learned the truth that bullies tortured him for months, and they caused his death. She snaps and throws away her marriage and her previous life, gets a new identity, and two years later, she becomes a nurse at the bully's school to get revenge. However, even if Maria succeeds in killing her son's murderers after torturing them physically and mentally, it's clear that Maria isn't getting any enjoyment out of it despite the bullies showing themselves to be scumbags that deserve their fate. She knows they must be punished, but she also knows that this won't bring her son back and that she has sacrificed everything else in her life for the sake of revenge. It also shows that Maria is mentally unwell, and while she gets revenge for her son, it will likely cost her her sanity and life.
  • Kiritaka Nagare was a good kid with loving parents and was especially close to his mother. One day, he saw one of his classmates being brutally tormented by a group of sadistic bullies, so he took the classmate's place to protect him. Kiritaka was tortured for months; one of the bullies framed him for stealing her gym clothes, which ostracized him from his classmates, so he endured the torture alone. He suffered a traumatizing series of events to take down those whom he rightfully saw as demons by exposing them to the public, and the only one left to show his true nature is Okaya, but his actions ultimately didn't accomplish what he wanted, and the first chapter ended with his death that destroyed his family.
    • It is unknown why Kiritaka never went to the teacher about his bullies, but he kept quiet about it because he didn't want to worry his mother while he gathered evidence to turn the bullies in to the police. But tragically, after months of torture, Kiritaka was forced to jump onto a blind turn on a highway under the threat of the bullies posting a fake pornographic video of his mother. He jumped and broke his legs. The last interaction he would have with his mother was tearfully calling out for her before being hit by a truck and dying. All he endured to bring his tormentors to justice turned out to be for nothing.
    • A police investigation told his parents that he committed suicide because of "abusive parents," to his mother's heartbreak. Eventually, she discovers Kiritaka's journals and learns the truth, swearing revenge and throwing away her life for it. And it's basically clear that since his death, the demons that killed him had free reign to destroy the lives of his classmates–exactly what he wanted to prevent.
    • His father Taiichiro became an outcast with his colleagues at the police, who believe he was an abusive parent, despite the claims being untrue. The father was broken by his son's death and the divorce from his wife. While his mother is avenging his death by slowly systematically dismantling the bullies' lives and torturing them to death, it's clear that she's been utterly destroyed by his murder, has become a broken shell, and will likely lose her sanity as well as her life once her revenge is complete. Kiritaka, enduring all the torture and sacrificing his life, essentially accomplished nothing but destroying his family, his mother, and any chance his victimizers would see true justice.

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Maria no Danzai Chapters

Volume 1

Chapter 1: IS THAT LOVE OR OR IS IT ARROGANCE

• Even after Okaya callously stomps his lunch and cockroaches start eating it, once everyone's gone Kiritaka salvages what he can and eats it while tears run down his face. His mother worked hard to make him that lunch, and by God he won't let her effort go to waste.
• Kiritaka's death and Mari mourning him is sobbing central as it is. But as the reader rereads Chapter 1, it's even sadder seeing what a difference in character poor Mari painstakingly and dilligently arranging her son's bento box is from Maria, an avenging angel of death to whom the idea of mercy fades with every life she deservedly claims.

Chapter 2: SAINT MARIA IN THE INFIRMARY

• Maria describes how she murdered her first victim two years ago: herself (or, to be more precise, her former identity of Mari Nagare). Maria tells the reader how she divorced her husband, cut off contact with her friends and workplace, got plastic surgery, changed her name to her maiden name, and infiltrated the school as a nurse. It is revealed that Maria got the job by giving the school principal a sexual favor; it is clear that she is disgusted with herself for doing something like that. As Maria washed her mouth out in the bathroom, she began to picture her former self with her son and husband. The woman that Maria used to be a kind mother and wife is gone, and it's implied that she is regretful about what she became and what she must do to get revenge.
• There's a tragic irony in Maria becoming a nurse as part of her plan to take vengeance on the bullies who killed her son. As stated in her backstory, Maria grew up an orphan and was bullied in school, but was able to get through it with the kindness of her school's nurse, and she wanted to become a nurse like her so that she could follow her example. She put her dream on hold to raise her son, but after her son was killed by bullies she instead became a nurse as a stepping stone to get revenge on his murderers. And it's clear that Maria became the exact kind of nurse she always wanted to be: the students widely regard Maria to be a saintly woman to whom they can always go when they're in trouble, whether they are physically ill, need sex advice or simply need a space safe from bullies; but while she gets genuine joy in helping people, it's clear that she knows it will not last because she is too broken, and she needs to get revenge on the monsters that took her son away. It's tragic that Maria could only become a nurse because of a tragedy that destroyed her, and while she can do some good and enjoy her job, it's temporary at best, and she will never find the true happiness she could have had if her son never died.
• Yashima, a teenage girl who was made to be a personal slave by Kowase because he caught her on video shoplifting. This poor girl has to pay Kowase money to keep him quiet and deal with his beatings and sexual harassment. Yashima may have shoplifted, but that is nothing compared to what Kowase is doing to her.

Chapter 3: SAINT MARIA IS WATCHING YOU

• Being beyond stressed by Kowase's torment, Yashima goes to the infirmary for a little rest, where Maria encourages her to open up about her troubles. Yashima's words make it clear that, after everything Kowase has put her through, she's essentially internalized that she deserves to be bullied for shoplifting once. Maria responds by playing along with her "I Have This Friend" schtick and promises to protect her if things become unbearable. Yashima starts sobbing after hearing this while Maria can't help but picture her own son in Yashima's place, as if wondering how much pain he was hiding from her.
• And when Yashima is kidnapped by Kowase and taken to his home, where he starts drowning her, she finally has enough and states that she doesn't care about him blackmailing her with his video of her shoplifting, feeling that her future being destroyed is better than dealing with him for another day and angrily tells him to get out of her life, Kowase's tries to drown her in response with the implication that he plans on killing her, as she falls unconscious, she dreams of Maria, thankfully Maria arrives just in time to save her and make sure that Kowase's never hurts her or anyone ever again.

Chapter 4: SHOW THY SINS

• When Kowase realizes that Maria is not joking about killing him by drowning him, he attempts to talk her down to escape his predicament. Kowase insists that he was just fooling around with Yashima, and while he was a little rough with her, he would've stopped if Yashima had told him to; but because she said nothing, that means it wasn't such a big deal. We see a flashback with Yashima in her underwear with a broken face, with the implication that he forced her to have sex with him. This monster abused this poor girl, and his poor attempt at an excuse only shows that he doesn't even really believe that what he did was wrong. As Maria listens to him, she remembers how her own son suffered the abuse in silence because he did not want to worry her. Fed up with Kowase's bullshit, Maria kicks the door and tells him to shut up.

Chapter 5: I TOLD YOU SO

• Kowase got what he deserved and drowned to death; at no point was he made sympathetically, or was the reader ever made to sympathize with him despite how horrifying his death was because of how much of a scumbag he is. In his last thoughts, Kowase showed how much of a scumbag he was when he revealed that he wanted to get rich by abusing women. Maria herself said that his greatest crime was being born and not what he did to her son, an understandable sentiment considering what he had done to both Yashima and Kiritaka and possibly countless other people, which perfectly describes what kind of useless scumbag Kowase is and how everyone else is better off without him. The real tragedy is that Maria herself takes no joy in his death despite what a monster he is; she quietly disposes of his corpse by chopping up his body before burning what's left of him in a barrel. As she is doing all of this, she has a flashback to her happier time with her son and husband; she starts to shake before she calms herself down, stating that there are four to go. A monster that deserves to die has been defeated, and an innocent girl has been saved, but Maria takes no joy in what she has to do to get revenge for her son; we are reminded that Maria's vengeance has a cost, and she herself doesn't take any satisfaction in it, even if these monsters get what they deserve the damage done to Maria and her family is permanent even if they get what they deserved.

Volume 2

Chapter 6: LIES IN THE COLOR OF THE MAY LILY

• The scene of Inspector Taiichiro Nagare meeting with Nozomu Okaya. The monster that killed his son and only regrets that he couldn’t torture him anymore is in front of Taiichiro, and Nozomu is putting on an act of being sympathetic to Kiritaka and Taiichiro to take that suspicion off of him. Readers can’t help but tear up to see that the monster that killed Kiritaka continues to live without remorse, and he’s manipulating his father.
• The scene where Kumiru manipulates vulnerable men to give her money, which she cruelly calls fishing. The man genuinely opened himself to her, believing she was a kind and caring girl because she acted caring and always paid for the meals. He holds her in a gentle embrace, and his words imply that women hurt him in the past. Kumiru makes the man emotional by guessing that he has always had trouble with women, causing him to tear up. Then Kumiru thug Iijima comes in and beats up the poor man, mocks him for being a pervert despite him not doing anything sexual with Kumirum with him just holding her, and Kumiru reveals the deceit and blackmails the poor man, heartbroken out of money. And then, the reader is treated to the scene of Kumiru taking a bath without a care in the world, thinking of the way she uses the money to impress Okaya; she truly is nothing but a cruel, heartless harpy, and we can do nothing but shed tears for that poor man and her possible other victims.

Chapter 7: THE NEST OF THE RED SPIDER

• In a flashback, it is revealed that Shikimi framed Kiritaka for stealing her gym clothes to get their classmates to ostracize him, which succeeded when Shikimi asked their classmates to raise their hands if they believed Kiri or to keep their hands down if they didn’t. No one lifted their hands, and Shikimi whispered to Nagare that no one believed in him. Kiritaka wrote in his journal that he believed that there must’ve been some people who knew he wasn’t the culprit, but that no one stood up for him because there was no value in trying to help him.
  Kiritaka: That was the day where I felt that I was alone in this.
  • What makes it worse is that we don’t know if Kiritaka actually had any friends or friendly classmates before this incident; he either didn’t have friends or his friends abandoned him because of the incident. Imagine how his classmates would react when they learned the truth about Shikimi and realized they abandoned Kiritaka for nothing.

Chapter 10: THE PRICE OF CONDEMNATION

• During an end-of-term faculty party for the teachers, Atsuki confides in Maria that he was worried about his two students, Kowase and Shikimi. He feels terrible that since his talk with Shikimi about his concerns about her being seen in the Love Hotel district, she has not been at school; he went as far as to go to her home to ask for her but didn't get an answer, and on top of that he's concerned about Kowase's disappearance. Maria assures him that they will probably return to school to comfort him, but we, the readers, know that that's a lie: Maria has already killed Kowase and plans to do the same for Shikimi, and the two of them are rotten monsters that deserve to die, but Atsuki doesn't know that. Imagine his reaction to learning about their deaths.
  • Another tragedy to this is that by all appearances, Atsuki is a genuinely good man who wants to be a good teacher, and he's concerned for his students; the problem is that he's concerned for the wrong two students who are rotten monsters destroying the lives of innocent people. Imagine his reaction if he were to learn the truth about Kowase and Shikimi — that they were destroying lives while he was ignorant of that and concerned for them.
  • Another layer of tragedy to add to this is the fact that maybe it's not completely Atsuki's fault that they had free reign to destroy lives. While Atsuki didn't notice the crimes of Kowase and Shikimi and admitted that he should've paid more attention to them, they themselves were very good at covering their tracks, while two of their victims, Kiritaka and Yashima, kept quiet about the abuse they were suffering. It's unknown why Kiritaka never went to a teacher for help, but it is known that he didn't want to worry his mother about the abuse he was suffering, and Yashima admitted that she believed that she deserved the abuse because she was caught shoplifting. Imagine how different the story would be if they went to Atsuki for help: here's a good man and a good teacher who will probably help his students, but because he's in the dark about their problems, he can't help them like he wants to. It is a tragedy that is all too frequent in the real world.
• As Atsuki is sharing his concerns with Maria about the two students that are missing, the principal steps in and gives him a drink; when Atsuki states that he doesn't drink, the principal discreetly threatens him to keep quiet about his concerns about the students, stating that their school's academics are getting closer to preparatory schools in Tokyo, and there will be trouble if weird rumors were going around. It's clear that the principal doesn't care about the students but rather his and the school's image, and while he's not the main cause of the conflict or connected to Okaya and his gang, it's made clear that he doesn't care about the students at the school. It's little wonder bullying is so rampant when this guy is in charge.
• Maria is looking at the other teachers having fun at the party; she notices that besides herself and Atsuki, everyone seems to be happy. She sadly states in her mind that it's like the Kiritaka incident never happened. It's heartbreaking that Maria appears to be the only one to remember her son and be affected by the tragedy of his death.
  • To the teachers' credit, it's possible that they could've been shocked by his death and mourned him two years ago; it's just that the tragedy happened a while ago, and they moved on. That adds to the isolation Maria must feel. She's the only one who knows the truth about her son's death, and set out to avenge him by throwing away her life while everyone else moves on because they don't know the truth about Kiritaka's death and that his murderers are right under their noses.
• Maria decides to leave the party early. Atsuki and another teacher see her leave and become concerned; one of the teachers asks if she would like to go for the second round because he really wants her to sing, but she declines, saying that she would like to be invited again another time. Atsuki then bows his head towards Maria and thanks her for helping him earlier. She becomes upset and just leaves without saying a word, to the shock of Atsuki and two other teachers. As she walks away, Maria feels guilty that they're showing her gratitude. This shows that while Maria retains some level of kindness that pushes her to look after the people around her in small ways, after all the things she's done and will do in the name of revenge she feels unworthy of being thanked even when it's for a legitimate reason like her genuine acts of kindness.
  Maria: Please don't thank me. I'm not the person you think I am.

Chapter 13: THE RED LIES PAVED THE ROAD TO DAMNATION

• The ending of this chapter. Kumiru Shikimi gets what she deserved, and any sympathy that could be given to her when she realized that she never had a conversation with the boy she loved is destroyed when she choses not to contact him in favor of a lackey because she's too afraid to be rejected by him. Shikimi also shows herself to be an irredeemable monster when she badmouths Kiritaka while insulting Maria, and while her fate is gruesome, it's shown to be completely deserved. What makes this tragic is that Maria takes no joy in killing her, and as Shikimi screams "I'm sorry", all Maria can do is sit down and say it's too late.

Chapter 14: NAGARE TAIICHIROU

• Taiichiro, Kiritaka's father, reappears in this chapter, and it is shown how his life fared after his son's death and his divorce from his wife. He consider's Kiritaka's suicide his own fault for not heeding Mari's warnings and chooses to punish himself for it. When he sees another happy family walking down the street, his mind goes back to the life he's lost with Maria and Kiritaka and he can't hold back his tears.
• Taiichiro's mind then goes further back to the time his wife left him. Mari's Motherly Sideplait is replaced by a disheveled haircut, indicating that she has already taken the decision to go after the people responsible for her son's death as she hands down the divorce papers to Taiichiro. The formerly proud inspector falls down on his hand and knees literally begging his wife to stay by his side as his "family". Mari proceeds to tear him down by asking him how they can expect to be a family, now that their own son is gone. She then walks out the door, leaving Taiichiro a broken man.
• Maria has breakfast with a plushie of her son, putting two bowls on the table; one for herself and one for the plushie, and she treats it as if it is Kiri-kun himself, alive.
• And there's the fact that Mari has unintentionally damaged her husband's life in her quest for revenge. His son's supposed suicide destroyed Taiichiro's life, and his wife left him with his colleagues ostracizing him because they believed he was abusing his son. This all could've been avoided if Mari had shown her husband the evidence she got from her son's diary, and he could have investigated the bullies and got them jailed and cleared his name; instead, Mari chose to abandon her husband and choose revenge, not knowing that he is suffering because his colleagues believe that he was abusing his son. And there is Mari's possible reaction to learning that Taiichiro is suffering from guilt because he blames himself for his son's suicide and is ostracized by his colleagues because they believe he's an abusive parent. It is made clear in the manga that Mari doesn't hate her husband or blame him for their son's death, so imagine how she would feel learning how much her husband has been thought and how she could've prevented his suffering if she had given him the evidence to clear his name.
• During a police interview where Taiichiro and his partner are questioning the principal and Atsuki about the rumors about Kumiru's connections to criminal activity, the principal denies knowing it, but Atsuki is guilty, admitting knowing but doing nothing, and Taiichiro's advice Atsuki that the only thing he can do is accept the pain and regret while continuing to live with his guilt. Both Atsuki and the principal react with shock to his words. Atsuki still feels guilty for not doing more, unaware of the monsters Kowase and Kumiru truly were, while Taiichiro lives with the pain of his son, staff, and wife, leaving him unaware of the actual circumstances of what happened.

Volume 3

Chapter 16: THE SEARCH FOR THE QUASI-GANGSTER

• During the BDSM session, Maria wonders what to do with Iijima as he is asleep in bed. She considers killing him since he's a loose end. As she was going to kill Iijima, the memory of her son stops her, telling her that man isn't it. She ultimately decides not to kill Iijima, realizing that her son's memory is right; it would not be right to kill him because he is not one of the people responsible for her son's death. While, it's heartwarming that her son's memory is still a positive influence, it's also bittersweet, considering she's still traumatized by his death.
  • And there is Kiritaka Nagare's appearance; normally, it would be heartwarming to see someone getting strength from a vision from a loved one, but disturbingly, Kiritaka's face looks like it was scooped out, leaving little more than a loose dangling tongue atop a slack bottom jaw. It's very clear that Mari(a) is still traumatized by seeing her son's disfigured body when she found him.
  • Another tragedy is that Kiritaka Nagare's memory of the kind kid who wanted to protect his classmate and defend his mother's honor has been reduced to the memory of a deformed corpse, which also shows how his mother's mind is starting to deteriorate. Maria may be able to get revenge for her son, but it will inevitably cost her her sanity and life.

Chapter 18: BERSERK

• We are treated to a flashback where Kinugawa beats Kiritaka Nagare because Kiritaka doesn't want to give him a gift his father gave him. We are reminded that even if Kinugawa does care for his friends and is generally sad that they are dead, he is just a monster like the rest of them, and his sadness over their deaths does not change the fact that he's just a monster that likes to ruin lives like the rest of his friends.
• Maria's reaction to seeing her ex-husband Taiichiro. She is shocked to see him at the nightclub, and while she escapes without being seen, she is shaken. As she showers in her home recuperating from what happened, she is clearly unhappy with the thought that her ex-husband will get in the way of her revenge, which will probably lead to heartbreak for both of them.
  Maria: You're going to get in my way, aren't you?

Chapter 19: FOREIGN SUBSTANCE

• As Maria is cleaning the principal's ear, worrying about the prior situation concerning Iijima's death and disinterested in the old man's flirting, her mind briefly sees her ex-husband instead of the latter. This hallucination immediately stops her from doing further cleaning and leaves the room. This demonstrates that, despite Maria having thrown away her old identity to prepare two years of revenge in cold-blooded fashion, Maria is anxious — and probably fears — that the man she loved will be an obstacle to avenge their son. She then sees her reflection which showcases who she really is: a broken Mari whose world was shattered by Kiri-kun's death and who sacrificed everything for him. However, to Maria, the crying Mari who loved her husband is dead, an identity she doesn’t need for her plotting.
  Maria to Mari: Begone, coward.

Chapter 20: CULPRIT

• In this chapter, we see the reappearance of two victims from Nozomu Okaya gang of demonic bullies, and the reader sees how they are still dealing with the trauma those demons inflicted upon them.
  • Yashima reappears, and in contrast to her previous appearance, where she was hanging around a friend with a big smile on her face, she looks broken. Yashima wants to tell Maria something, and Maria nervously begins to suspect that Yashima killed Iijima to help her, only for Yashima to instead reveal that she was at Kowase's place when he disappeared, and she's afraid of becoming a suspect, so she didn't tell the police. Maria encourages her not to go to the police not only to protect herself but to protect Yashima; while Yashima is surprised that Maria's being kind to her, insisting that she's a bad girl because of her shoplifting, Maria just hugs her and insists she already paid the price for that. Yashima then admits to Maria that she wishes Tsubasa Kowase would never be found, and despite everything he did to her, Yashima thinks that is a bad thought and considers herself a bad child for thinking that. It's heartbreaking that even when Kowase is out of her life for good, he's still damaging her, and Maria notes that her negative feelings and trauma can twist her into being a murderer, speaking from personal experience.
  • We get to see the reappearance of the kid that Kiritaka saved back when he first became Okaya's target, who is named Akihiro Yuda. He appears to be a normal but quiet young man who works at a store, but then we see him having a fantasy about brutally murdering a rude customer. It's clear that the torture he suffered at the hands of Okaya's gang left a mark on him, even if he escaped with his life.

Chapter 21: TRAITOR

• The revelation that Yuda was Kiritaka's friend and the fact that he felt guilty because even though his friend wanted to protect him, he also wanted to protect Kiritaka but was too afraid to confront the bullies after what they did. When he noticed Kiritaka's bruises, Yuda told him to run away from the bullies too. Surprisingly for him, he didn't want to, stating that he wanted to become a detective and report bad people like them. This is a heartbreaking reminder that, in the end, Kiritaka's goal wasn't achieved, and he will never become a detective like he always wanted.
• Yuda was at Kiritaka’s funeral, feeling heartbroken and guilty for his death. Judging how there is a lot of snow covering his hair and his shoulders, he probably stayed there for a long time. Then Okaya, Kiritaka's murdered, approached Yuda and had the nerve to ask why Kiritaka killed himself. His question and meeting the source of his trauma understandably caused Akihiro to have a breakdown and become a recluse.
  "Even so, I couldn't run from the devil."
• Yuda once tried to choke himself to death in order to escape his unfortunate life. In the end he relented, but the experience left him in tears.
• Months later in his house, he witnessed the bullies being all happy, ultimately snapping because those demons that tortured him and his friend were still having happy lives without consequences, so he trained himself to be a killer to torture them. He followed Kowase to brutally murder him, but his trauma had scared Yuda so much he couldn't do it.
• The chapter's title "TRAITOR" may refer to how Yuda saw himself. Even though he understandably couldn't confront Okaya's gang despite wanting Kiritaka to be safe and being protected by him, he didn't do much to try to help him aside from saying he should run away too. His friend's death must have made him feel remorseful.

Chapter 22: FATE・DESTINY・MISSION

• It's subtle, but the faces Maria Akeboshi and Akihiro Yuda make in this chapter show how miserable they are.
  • As Yuda explains how he learned that Maria is hunting the bullies that murdered her son, we see a flashback where Akihiro sees Maria's shrine to her son Kiritaka Nagare; Akihiro looks heartbroken seeing the pictures of his deceased friend who had protected him and who he feels he let down.
  • Yuda expresses his desire to join Maria and his willingness to let her use him as redemption for Kiritaka; Maria has a miserable look on her face. Previous chapters hinted that she takes no satisfaction in her revenge, and even though she's killing monsters that are irredeemable and deserve to die, she has no delusions that she's a good person or doing good.

Chapter 23: THE FANATICS

• Maria rejects having Yuda as her helper, revealing that she recorded his confession to killing Iijima and warns him to get out of the car or she will go to the police with the confession. But as Maria drives away and thinks to herself, it is revealed that she blames herself for not killing Iijima, that she could've prevented the life her child saved from being a part of this. It’s clear that Maria isn't happy that the life her child saved became a psychotic killer who idolizes her, and she probably feels that she tainted one of the good things her son did in his life by corrupting the person he saved through not killing a bastard that deserved it. Maria knew that her revenge wouldn’t do anything good for her, and now she feels guilty that she's dragging someone down with her.
• Taiichiro's home state. His depressed life has led him into adopting unhealthy habits, such as drinking a lot and not bothering to clean up his mess, as a result of his family's tragedy. A shot shows him keeping a photo of his baby son and an old happy family photo.

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