The Life of Ichabod - Vol. 3 Ch. 16 - Unko Kare

[MangaDex]

 

[sleepyknight]

its been 84 years...

 

[voliol]

Ichabod is not something I expected today. I have no idea what's going on, but that might be true even without this short break ^^.

 

[Cynix9]

its been 84 years...

Feels like it.

Ichabod is not something I expected today. I have no idea what's going on, but that might be true even without this short break ^^.

The action scenes are a little hard to understand, and a lot is revealed this chapter. Here's a detailed synopsis. I'll be using the names George and Eric to refer to Hamamatsu and Monsieur in the distant past, specifically, and keeping the names Hamamatsu and Monsieur for the present and recent past.

1. Yahweh and the younger Robin sister are trying to beat Eli to Neoteny Park. I think Ten is just kind of along for the ride.
2. Hamamatsu mentions Eli, Ichabod is unsure if he means his genetic mother or not.
3. Hamamatsu goes on a tangent about Eli, and Rose refocuses the discussion.
4. Rose and Ichabod learn that the shaking earlier was due to an explosion in the lobby, which killed Bombay.
5. Talking to himself, Hamamatsu inadvertently reveals that he knew about the details of the heist plans.
6. Rose interrogates Hamamatsu, first to find out his motive, then the identity of who was behind the bombing.
7. For first question, Hamamatsu is evasive, the coded meaning of his metaphor is "An unknown is better than a known enemy, so the pragmatic decision would be to trust me."
8. Finding out it's Yahweh, Rose goes off to kill him, jumping out of the train, even though she knows she's hypocritically disrespecting Guns memory.
9. Hamamatsu tells Ichabod to stay behind, and finds out that Ichabod can see Monsieur, even though he can't.
10. Rose hijacks a car out of a car carrier and drives the opposite direction towards him.
11. Yahweh and Rose engage in game of chicken.
12. Yahweh tries shooting Rose, and Rose flips open the hood to block the bullets.
13. They crash, but the younger Robin keeps driving with the cars fused together.
14. Rose gets on top of the cars and attacks Yahweh with a pipe while they're moving.
15. The elder Robin hitches a ride with Eli.
16. Kako (new character) tries to sit next to Ichabod, and Hamamatsu tells her to leave, partly because Monsieur was sitting there.
17. Hamamatsu goes on a tangent, talking to Ichabod, but then revealing his words were also directed at Monsieur, who he addresses by his first name.
18. Monsieur responds to him, and Ichabod relays his words, and the fact he knows Hamamatsu's name and doesn't like being called Eric reveals that he is really there.
19. We enter a flashback to the Eric and George's first reunion since they were seperated as kids.
20. During a police raid, George encounters Eric in a stairwell.
21. George lies to protect him, the first time we know of that he comprimised his integrity as an officer.
22. When George asks why he became a criminal, he begins talking about Layla.
23. We learn about Layla, which also reveals that in the story Hamamatsu told Eli, he was lying about his identity (he implied he was an officer, when he was one of the kids.)
24. Eric says that while he hates Layla's murderer, it's the desecration by the police that he absolutely can't forgive.
25. George, in turn, says he was taken in by an officer.
26. Eric responds with a vulgar, misogynistic idiom.
27. George and Eric argue over generalization and complicity, respectively.
28. Eric accuses George of being afraid to become a whistlleblower, despite what he says.
29. Eric asks George to assist him in his criminal pursuits.
30. They discuss the megacorporation Flugelheim, Eric reveals he was taken in by them. It's revealed they raise orphans to become criminals. It can be probably be inferred that this is how Guns and Rose got involved, as well (I don't know if something later disproves this)
31. George says that despite his posturing of freedom, Eric is just a pawn for Flugelheim and that it could hardly be considered revenge.
32. We learn of the reason for George and Eric's partnership, and that Hamamatsu was at least partly attempting to destablize and erode trust in the police with his corruption.
33. George calls the plan childish, so Eric acts like a child and jumps in the river.
34. Flashback ends, and from the TV announcement we learn the police have swept everything under the rug.
35. Monsieur accuses Hamamatsu as slacking in his absence, but Hamamatsu says the reason is because it became clear to him the real reason. To be clear, Ichabod is still acting as an intermediary here, as George cannot see or hear Monsieur, but Ichabod's dialogue is not shown to maintain the flow of the conversation.
36. Hamamatsu presses Monsieur, indirectly accusing him of being Layla's murderer, implying that his grudge is projected guilt.
37. Monsieur dissapears, and Hamamatsu is startled because Kako suddenly sat down where he was.
38. Hamamatsu reveals to Ichabod that he discovered the autopsy in his home. His adoptive father hid the evidence to protect George, as he believed he was guilty, which is a great source of inner conflict for Hamamatsu. This would also be relevant to Ichabod, as Mary is not related to him.
39. We cut back to Tanida, ending the chapter on an abrupt change in tone.

I think the next chapter is a bit more straightforward, thankfully.

TL;DR version:
1. Rose leaves Ichabod and Hamamatsu to kill Yahweh.
2. Hamamatsu realizes Ichabod can see Monsieur
3. Kako is introduced
4. Hamamastu (George) and Monsieur (Eric) have their shared backstory revealed-revenge for the policemen desecrating the corpse of their maternal figure, Layla, is their shared motivation.
5. We find out the Flugelheim megacorporation that runs the bank is a criminal enterprise that recruits from the orphanages they also run. Monsieur ended up there, while Hamamatsu was raised by an officer.
6. We found out Monsieur probably killed Layla when he was Ichabod's age.
7. We find out that Hamamatsu was falsely implicated in the Layla's murder, and that his adoptive father buried this evidence under the belief he was guilty.
8. This leaves our groups Ichabod+Hamamatsu+Kako, Rose+Yahweh+younger Robin sister, Eli+Ten+elder Robin sister, and Mary+Kiriko, their paths all converging at Neoteny Park.

 

[Redsaint]

found this manga today from your earlier post from dowman.
speed read the whole thing and now I’m too confused to sleep.

 

[Emberger]

Thanks for picking that up. I'm also coming from that dowman post.

 

[Luke_chase]

Anilist doesn’t even have the final volume on it

 

[Luke_chase]

Man I really cared about this manga six years ago, I hope I can muster the willpower to get through the last volume