@livesofflight
I was thinking the same. This chapter heavily reminded me of Adachi Mitsuru's works, especially with the old man's design and how the chapter ends with such a cliffhanger and the characters' reactions.
@ataru for sure. A classic adachi move is to have an old man say the same (seemingly insignificant) thing to two different characters in two different scenes In order to connect them through either coincidence or perhaps by fate.
@livesofflight.
It can't be a coincidence since the author publishes her manga in Weekly Shounen Sunday like Adachi has done with most of his titles since the 70s. It must be an hommage tohim, and it's a nice one.