Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc

Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc
Arc Information
Volumes:	Volume 15 - 19 (5 Volumes)
Manga Chapters:	Chapter 131 - 168 (38 Chapters)
Year(s) Released:	2023 - 2024 (Manga)
Arc Chronology
← Bangkok Arc
JAA Jail Arc →

The Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc (世せい紀きの殺ころし屋や展てん編へん, Seiki no Koroshiya Ten-hen^?) is the eighth story arc in the Sakamoto Days series.

After returning from Bangkok, Kashima informs Sakamoto and the others of Uzuki's next plan to assassinate the current JAA chairman during the Assassin Exhibition of the Century. However, after the Order refuses to cancel the exhibition, Sakamoto and the group decide to infiltrate it in order to stop Uzuki's plan.

Summary

Kashima joins Sakamoto

Having brought Kashima and the remainder of his body back from Thailand, Sakamoto and his group interrogate the cyborg for more information on Uzuki and his plans. They make no progress since his mental willpower is strong enough to not leak information to Shin. Sakamoto and the group momentarily leave him for lunch, and Kashima is kidnapped by Hana, who takes him on a joyride through the city and gets him mechanical parts to replace his body. Kashima is outfitted with a set of track treads to move around, a fan on his back for propulsion and forward momentum, and grabber claws as arms. While Kashima is deep in self-reflection, a car comes crashing towards Hana. Kashima reflexively puts himself between the car and Hana and stops the car with the sudden arrival and assistance of Sakamoto. Kashima agrees to help Sakamoto stop Uzuki, on condition that Sakamoto promises to save Uzuki as well, to which Sakamoto agrees.

Preparing for the Assassin Exhibition of the Century

Back in Shin's room in Sakamoto's residence, Kashima shares his observations of Uzuki conversing with himself. Kashima explains that his motive for taking over Okutabi Lab incident was to use their research in telepathic superpowers to read Uzuki's thoughts and gain more insight into his leader's reasoning. He also explains that Uzuki's goals have gone too far for him to be comfortable, and attributes Uzuki's excessive actions to his Rion-Uzuki persona. However, he refuses to share information on the members of Uzuki's Organization and their abilities but is willing to share that they plan to assassinate Sei Asaki, the current chairman of the JAA, by blowing up the Okutabi New National Museum of Art during Sei Asaki's visit to the Assassin Exhibit of the Century one month later, on September 18th.

During training, Heisuke struggles to hit targets and keeps having flashbacks of his fight with Kumanomi where he unintentionally shot a bystander. Suddenly, he's kidnapped by Shishiba, Osaragi, and Nagumo in a car, with Kamihate watching from afar. Heisuke struggles, and Nagumo quickly pushes him down into the seat, saving him from being sniped by Kamihate. The Order members ask Heisuke for information about the enemies he met in Thailand. Heisuke gives them a description of Kumanomi's appearance and abilities and apologizes for being responsible for Hyo's death, but Shishiba gives Kamihate an insight into the coldness of an assassin's life. The Order decides to keep Heisuke for a while to dissuade Sakamoto from getting involved, but Nagumo gets a call from Sakamoto and trades the information he learned from Kashima for Heisuke. Nagumo refuses to stop the event, instead planning to use Sei Asaki as bait, partially due to Sei's tendency to do what he wants regardless of danger, and he and Sakamoto get on each other's nerves due to their refusal to see each other's perspective.

Having failed to convince the Order to call the event off, Sakamoto decides to infiltrate the event and stop the bomb before the Order does. Seeing as the tickets are sold out, Sakamoto and the gang decide to try and get in as Exhibitors by submitting Sakamoto's service gun as an exhibit but are rejected due to the submission being too late. Outside, Nagumo goes through the security measures with the museum staff and confirms that only ticketholders with confirmed identities can enter the exhibit. In the museum's office, the exhibit organizer also lets Sakamoto know that Sakamoto's service gun had already been submitted to the exhibition before the gang gets kicked out of the museum office. Before leaving, Amane bumps into the organizer, helping him pick up the papers he dropped, but memorizing their contents before returning them to him. Amane draws the files he saw, and Lu finds tickets to the exhibit on a black market auction site able to overwrite the ticketholder information she learned about from Lu Wutang. Sakamoto gets into a bidding war with Kamihate, who he learns also was the one who submitted Sakamoto's gun as an exhibit, and wins the ticket, right before Kamihate shoots Lu's laptop as a warning sign to back off.

In a flashback, Sakamoto, Nagumo, and Hyo are surrounded by a large group of enemy snipers during a mission, but Kamihate sets up about four kilometers away and proceeds to snipe all of the enemy snipers. Sakamoto defends by holding up a picture of a weather lady, which Kamihate refuses to shoot, and the group chases him down. While driving towards Kamihate's location, Kamihate shoots Sakamoto in his right arm, and Heisuke insists on taking Kamihate down himself to regain his self-confidence. In a flashback, Kamihate reveals his desire to prevent Sakamoto from entering the exhibit due to Sakamoto being responsible for the kill that although wrongly attributed to Kamihate, placed him in the top 100 assassins. Their target had been painting before he was killed, and the blood splatter on the painting would have let Sakamoto know he was the one who killed the painter, hence Kamihate desires to prevent Sakamoto from entering the exhibit and seeing the artwork. Through their battle, Heisuke befriends Kamihate, although he rejects Kaminate's invitation to leave without Sakamoto.

Haruma infiltrates a hotel to search for JAA Executive Erio Muto, who Uzuki plans to use to get information about JAA Chairman Sei Asaki and keep him at the exhibit. Haruma kills several of Muto's underlings, convincing Muto to come along without resisting, and brings him to Uzuki. Uzuki convinces Muto to help by promising not to kill him and promising Muto the position of JAA Chairman. During training, Sakamoto's gang agrees that Sakamoto, Shin, and Amane will go to the exhibition using their tickets, and Shin invites Kaji along in place of Heisuke, who was injured in his fight with Kamihate.

Day of the exhibition

Osaragi breaks an exhibit to give it to a girl next to her asking about it, and is chided by Shishiba. Outside the exhibit, Sakamoto, Shin, and Amane unite with Kaji and explain the situation to him. Sakamoto gets a call from Lu Wutang right before they go in. Inside the museum, Shin, Amane, and Kaji walk around to try and detect the bomb, when Shishiba walks past, recognized by Amane as his father's colleague. Shin and Kaji don't notice Amane leaving them to tail Shishiba. In the Contemporary Assassins exhibit, Kaji hears the ticking of a bomb and sees Mafuyu. Kaji, not expecting to see Mafuyu, is easily taken down by him. Mafuyu hits Kaji in his throat, stopping him from calling for assistance, and joins Toramaru in starting to search for the Order. Shin notices a crowd gathering around Kaji and Kaji communicates telepathically to Shin that Mafuyu is the bomb. Kashima calls Shin from the garage at Sakamoto's explaining that he put a monitoring app on Shin's phone, and explains that the bomb inside Mafuyu was programmed to self-detonate upon his death, but is too small to destroy the whole museum. Kashima reassures Shin that he has the only remote control to the bomb inside Mafuyu, and quickly relocates Mafuyu. Shin chases Mafuyu down in combat and realizes that Uzuki plans to detonate the bomb by having Mafuyu (and by extension Toramaru) challenge the Order and get killed, detonating the bomb and hopefully taking out a member of the Order too. Shin and Mafuyu are restrained by JAA security staff, but Mafuyu escapes, letting all the JAA security staff capture Shin instead.

At 1:45 pm, JAA Chairman Asaki enters the museum. As he passes through the exhibits, an announcement is made for Mafuyu to be dealt with on sight. Shin escapes the JAA security staff and chases Mafuyu into a lift, but Mafuyu is seen by Osaragi. Shin, unable to read Osaragi's thoughts as she fights, explains the trigger for the bomb implanted in Mafuyu, which Osaragi takes as instructions to dismantle Mafuyu instead of just killing him, and the battle resumes. Mafuyu and Shin can only really dodge and defend, and Osaragi punches Mafuyu through the lift door, into a diorama of an American 1940s assassin city. Mafuyu activates his mask, temporarily giving him the ability to hold his own against the order, but he is unable to defeat Osaragi. Mafuyu has a flashback to his past with Natsuki, playing with Natsuki's new inventions in the forest under the guise of training, and Natsuki's self-sacrifice by volunteering to go to the Al-Kamar orphanage and subsequently the Order in place of Mafuyu. Natsuki turns up while invisible and freezes Osaragi right before Osaragi can finish off Mafuyu. Osaragi quickly unfreezes herself but sees Natsuki turn off his invisibility and does not understand how, believing Natsuki to be a ghost, and freezes (not literally).

Shin, Natsuki, and Kaji bring Mafuyu to a storage area, where Natsuki surgically removes the bomb from Mafuyu's tendon. Natsuki manages to safely extract the bomb, but Kaji hears it still ticking. Shin puts the bomb in a plastic bag, uses Natsuki's freezing bombs to freeze the bag, smashes a wall, and throws the bomb out of the museum, where it explodes mid-air. Amane and Kaji are arrested by the Special Defense Squad. Natsuki and Shin are arrested by Special Defense Squad captain Samejima thinking they are with Uzuki's organization, who also orders Toramaru's arrest having been informed of her arrival with Mafuyu. The museum begins to lock down, causing the public to go into a frenzy. Toramaru starts to cry and is confronted by three JAA members, but is quickly rescued by Sakamoto. Toramaru tells Sakamoto about the bomb inside her, and Sakamoto disguises and protects her from various assassins around the museum. Sakamoto encourages Toramaru to be a fan of oneself more, but Toramaru misinterprets it and becomes a fan of Sakamoto again.

Battles & Events

• Sakamoto, Shin and Amane vs Kamihate
• Heisuke vs Kamihate
• Haruma vs Unnamed Muto's Bodyguards
• Mafuyu vs Kaji
• Shin vs Mafuyu
• Shin vs Mafuyu vs Osaragi
• Mafuyu vs Osaragi
• Sakamoto vs Ninnin Man
• Nagumo vs Gaku
• Shishiba vs Kumanomi and Haruma
• Kei Uzuki vs Asaki
• Nagumo vs Uzuki
• Shishiba and Shin vs Kumanomi and Haruma
• Shishiba, Shin, and Amane vs Kumanomi, Haruma, and Carolina Reaper
  • Shishiba vs Kumanomi
  • Shin vs Haruma
  • Amane vs Carolina Reaper
  • Amane and Shishiba vs Carolina Reaper and Kumanomi
• Osaragi vs Carolina Reaper
• Osaragi and Amane vs Kumanomi
• Sakamoto, Nagumo, and Uzuki vs Takamura
  • Sakamoto vs Takamura
• Gaku vs Takamura (Rematch)
  • Gaku and Haruma vs Takamura
  • Gaku, Haruma, and Uzuki vs Takamura
  • Gaku, Haruma, Uzuki, Nagumo, and Sakamoto vs Takamura

Characters Introduced

• Kamihate
• John Paichy (minor character)
• Erio Muto (minor character)
  • Unnamed bodyguards of Muto
• Remi
• Seba's Parents
• Samejima
• Ninnin Man
• Unnamed X Workers
• Oki

Story Impact

• Kashima reveals Uzuki's next plan to assassinate the JAA Chairman at the Assassin Exhibit.
  • Sei Asaki, Uzuki's older brother, is revealed to be the current JAA Chairman.
• Kamihate is introduced as a member of the Order.
• It's revealed that Mafuyu and Toramaru are decoy bombs to provide a distraction, where a different bomb kills the JAA Chairman.
• Kumanomi, Haruma, and Gaku arrive at the exhibit.
• Gaku is seriously injured after fighting Nagumo.
  • After Takamura attacks Sakamoto, Nagumo, and Uzuki, Gaku awakens for his revenge against Takamura.
• Shishiba reunites with Amane, Yotsumura's son.
  • Shishiba tells Amane that he killed his father Yotsumura.
• Shin stumbles on to a new technique of his telepathy in his fight with Haruma.
• Shishiba ends up seriously injured by protecting Amane.
• Osaragi kills Carolina Reaper in an instant.
• Nagumo attempts to kill Uzuki but fails due to his unique body structure.
• It's revealed that "Akao" is a personality created by Uzuki using his memory about her to protect him.
  • It's explained that the reason that "Akao" put the bounty on Sakamoto is so that she would kill Uzuki.
• Nagumo is expelled from the Order. He, Sakamoto, and Uzuki are then declared as essential targets for a special class A extermination.
• Takamura arrives and attempts to kill Uzuki and X's Organization memebers.
• Haruma and Gaku are killed by Takamura in protecting Uzuki.
• Due to watching his friends die for him, Uzuki creates a new personality based on Takamura.
  • Takamura is killed by Uzuki.
• The remaining members of the Order decide to capture Sakamoto, Nagumo, and Uzuki.
  • Oki is introduced and revealed as a member and the leader of Order.

Trivia

• This is the longest arc having surpassed JCC Infiltration Arc.
• The total repair cost for Kashima's body modifications/repairs is 2000 yen
• Sakamoto's service gun is the Colt Government from the new student set passed out at the JCC, which Sakamoto used throughout his time in the Order since he was not picky about weapons.
  • The gun is slightly worn out, probably from long usage.
  • Sakamoto's name is inscribed in English along the barrel, along with an identification number from the JCC
  • The gun has "SAKAMOTO" handwritten along the barrel in English, and "Taro" handwritten below it in Japanese.
    • The writing is from Nagumo and his other companions
• Nagumo's full name is revealed to be Yoichi Nagumo.
• Takamura, before his death, spoke for the first time in the series. The old assassin hadn't spoken at all since his appearances in two previous one-shots, Garaku and Locker Room.