| Prologue | |
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Vital statistics
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| Author | Yun Kouga |
| Illustrator | Sunao Minakata |
| Published on | |
| Published by | Newtype magazine |
Publication order
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| Previous | Next |
| - | Chapter 1 |
The "Prologue" is the 0th Chapter and Debut Chapter of the manga series Akuma no Riddle and appears as the first listed chapter in the first manga volume.
The prologue chapter starts with Kaiba sitting on his officer chair and introducing himself towards the reader, revealing his name and that he's a teacher at the Private Academy 17. He continues to speak about that he's already decided about who of his student he'll send to Myōjō Academy, referring to the student as 'being one of his best'. He is then seen smirking and chuckling in a satisfied manner and reveals that he'll be sending Tokaku Azuma, viewing her as the perfect choice to take over this mission.
In the next scene Tokaku was called into Kaiba's officer at school and he tells her that she'll now get an instruction about her mission which will be of course an assassination act, also telling off that Tokaku's target will be a female student with a certain special background story. Kaiba further explains that Tokaku will be transfered to the Myōjō Academy and that she'll be part of the 10th year's Black Class, and he strangely added that Tokaku would not have to wear any school uniform just this one time. He put the mission in short words, telling Tokaku that she only needs to kill off the class' target before any other assassin could do so. Tokaku also gets informed about that aside from the class' target person, all other students are killers by themselves too. The instruction end with Kaiba asking if Tokaku understood everything about her task. She doesn't reply with words, only nodded with her head to sign that she understood.
After that the scene switches over to a gym/training room at the Private Academy 17 where Tokaku alongside other students are doing targeting training exercises. As they take a little break a few students come up to Tokaku and the one called Konishi asks her directly about if it's true that Tokaku'll be transfered to the famous Myōjō Academy and will even attend the mysterious Black Class. Tokaku again doesn't reply with words, she only needs to state this information as being the truth.
Then a narrating introduction about the Myōjō Academy is thrown in (probably spoken my Tokaku in her thoughts) telling about that this academy consists of an own elementar school, a middle school, a high-school and even an own university section. It is also explained that each grade consists of five classes which are labeled with a different color each: red, white, blue, yellow and green. However, a black class does not exist normally and is only formed for special purposes.
The scene returns to the gym again where students cheer for Tokaku and are happy for her that she's given the opportunity to attend the Black Class at the Myōjō Academy to prove her own skills and worth it and push the image of Private Academy 17's assassins as being the best of all schools of Japan. They all also tell Tokaku that she's truly the best of them and they know she'll win this competition without any doubt. Tokaku by herself however, ist just showing a blank, dull face in reaction to these praising words. The students continue to tell that the Myōjō Academy should be a school with a very large, wide campus and also say that they'll miss Tokaku. One of them then asked why Tokaku would have to kill a certain female student after all? To which Tokaku replies that it doesn't interest her why she needs to kill that target to win and throws a knife at a target, hitting straight on point. Continuing with her speech that she doesn't care about details and simply will kill each target that is chosen as to be killed.
And then the scene switches over to a classroom inside of Myōjō Academy and showing a smiling Haru Ichinose who's looking through a window at the landscape but gets attacked by something coming flying at her through the window from the out. Haru can dodge it easily though and Mizorogi-sensei appears behind her in this moment, asking if she's okay. She smiles at the teacher and states she's fine and that probably only insect just hit her, nothing to care or worry about. Mizorogi-sensei wonders about that and tells Haru that she better be careful after all. He also suggests that Haru better keeps the window closed since they're in the 25th floor but Haru replies that she's safe since the windows are protected by iron poles. She then looks outside again with a wide smile, stating that she likes the view from above there. Mizorogi then asked if Haru is enjoying her school life so far and she says "yes" and added that she was never allowed to attend a normal school before due to 'certain' reasons. Haru tells she's happy that she can go to Myōjō Academy now, Mizorogi-sensei then tells that the other classmates of her will arrive soon too to which Haru reacts with greater joy, she's already excited about to get to know the other students of her class.
Haru tells her vision of wanting to make friends with everybody and looking forward to happy times with her new classmates. And most of all she's planning on to finish school successfully. Mizorogi-sensei cheers for Haru, saying that she'll make it through if she'll be hard-working for her goal, Haru just agrees with his words and adds that learning was all she did in her life so far so that she'll have no problems at school.
The following scene shows Haru sitting on her seat in the classroom, seeming to feel enjoyed about being the first student who's arrived in class today. While sitting on her place Harau holds a slim book in her hands which is apparently the class list for the Black Class and she starts to read the names of her classmates aloud in listed ordering:
- Tokaku Azuma
- Isuke Inukai
- Kōko Kaminaga
- Hitsugi Kirigaya
- Shiena Kenmochi
- Haruki Sagae
- Suzu Shutō
- Otoya Takechi
- Chitaru Namatame
- Nio Hashiri
- Sumireko Hanabusa
- Mahiru Banba
- Haru Ichinose
and added that no matter what'll happen, she'll definitely stay it out until the end.
Then Tokaku is seen again inside of Kaiba office. He tells that there's truly nothing else that she still would need to know to attend her mission. However, Kaiba then interrupts himself and says there would be one thing though, he reveals to Tokaku that claiming her as the best of his students was nothing but a mere lie which doesn't seem to shock her much at first sight. He explains that he chose Tokaku not because she's a talented assassin or member of the famous Azuma-clan, the reason was more because of all his students Tokaku was the one who didn't fit in the most, calling her existence a 'big failure of nature'(Obviously only a reference to the meaning of Tokaku's name and not meant as an actual insult, more as a teasing/twisted kind of motivation towards Tokaku). Despite her sensei's harsh words Tokaku stays cool and says she doesn't care if Kaiba things so low of her. Kaiba continued his speech with saying that Tokaku either chooses to kill to safe her own life or she'll refuse to kill and gets killed off by herself instead, leaving the option up to Tokaku what she'll make out of the situation. He then teasingly added whether Tokaku thinks about to survive without the need to kill. This comment seemed to have hit a nerve because Tokaku shows irritation for the first time after Kaiba confronted her with his last statement. Kaiba then dismisses her by telling Tokaku to leave now. She shows a more angered face in reaction to Kaiba's daring attitude and claims that she didn't understand a single word of his speech, calling his words as being wasted and trashy thoughts, claiming Kaiba to be nothing but a mere idiot in this moment.
The scene then fades into black and a narrating voice tells about that Tokaku Azuma and Haru Ichinose will happen to meet soon.