Of course the plan to rescue Shiraishi wouldn’t have gone completely smoothly, as Tsurumi sends Koito to meet with our group and sees through Suzukawa’s disguise. Of course Sugimoto is staying committed to rescuing Shiraishi to help get answers for Asirpa. Koito is quite shown to be an eccentric type, which makes him a perfect fit in the 7th division. Still, Sugimoto even goes to call out Shiraishi. He lets him know that he didn’t betray them. The ironic part is that Shiraishi did betray them, but this does give Shiraishi a reset button with Sugimoto’s group in case he wants to win back their trust.
Still, as the group is hiding from the 7th Division, we get a conversation between Asirpa and Sugimoto. We can still see Asirpa looks at the deaths of humans as equals, with Sugimoto mentioning Suzukawa’s death. Of course Sugimoto knows all these prison convicts are terrible people. Sugimoto mentions how in war you have to destroy yourself, and as we see with those pursuing the gold, they haven’t recovered themselves. When they experience death, they are released from endless suffering, one could say. We can tell that this comes with experience because when Asirpa mentions visiting Sugimoto’s home, we see hesitation and tears from him. It is very likely that he hasn’t recovered from the war, as he continues to try to find himself.
This episode adapted the rest of chapters 97 and 98-100. Overall good pacing.